A Good Birthday

It was my birthday on Tuesday, and it was definitely a good one. Some highlights:

Not only is September 8 my birthday, it is also the day we celebrate the birth of Mary. With this in mind, I decided to go to daily Mass instead of just doing my normal routine of reading the day's readings from my Bible at breakfast. I thought I'd head to St. Clare of Assisi, one of the two nearby churches. They offered services at both 7 and 8 a.m., so since I had class at 8:30, I went at 7:00.

Time spent walking to church: 15 minutes
Length of the actual Mass: 14 minutes

That was the shortest Mass I've ever been to. I didn't even think it was possible for it to be that short. In fact, I could have even made it to class (barely) on time if I had gone at 8:00! It's all right, though. I had a nice, leisurely walk back to the apartment, where I was able to sip some coffee and read a bit before going to class. I'd say all of that was an excellent start to the day.

Lectures that day weren't too spectacular, but we did get to talk about blood and hematopoiesis. I like blood. It is one of the few things that I was really looking forward to examining in histology lab.

I wasn't planning on doing anything that night, since we had (surprisingly) celebrated the night before. Two of my friends, Tristan and Adriane, hosted a dinner for my group of friends at their apartment. I was told not to worry about bringing anything because everything had already been covered. Well, I never put two and two together, but it was a birthday celebration, complete with funfetti cake. Yes, my friends had found out that I like funfetti, so they made a cake especially for me -- how sweet. What is even funnier is that later that night, after I went back to my apartment, there was another surprise: Shira, one of my roommates, had baked funfetti cupcakes for me, also because she had found out that I like funfetti. Funfetti all around!

It says "HAPPY BIRTHDAY MICHELLE!" Thanks, Shira!

Anyway, after those fun celebrations, I had figured I should study on Tuesday night, since we had yet another histology quiz coming up on Thursday. At 9:00, though, my other roommate, Kendra, came back to the apartment and said that her plan to pick up a bottle of wine to share had been foiled by the store closing early. She suggested, however, that we go to Coals, a cute restaurant/bar/cafe across the street. So we did. We shared a bottle of pinot noir and a tasty pizza, and we were also joined by some more friends after a bit. It was fun to relax with friends, and I didn't even feel guilty about not studying! Wonderful.

I also had the pleasure throughout the day of being flooded with e-mails from facebook about friends writing on my wall and sending messages. All told, I received 52 happy birthday messages, which made me feel popular for a day. Of course, this is including messages like Jake's, which didn't technically wish happy birthday, but would not have been written if it hadn't been my birthday: "What a lame day." Thanks, Jake.