BIRTHENTINE'S DAY!

I had a lovely birthday, thanks for asking!  It was very low key, but nice.  My mom and my sister took me out to lunch in Athens at a place called Wildwood Deli.  It's a tiny, tiny, tiny place off of the square. Like, only 2 tables inside kind of tiny!  The food was delicious, though, so if you're ever rolling through Athens, I very much recommend it.  Honestly, all I had was a ham sandwich, but it was the best dang ham sandwich I've ever eaten!  Then we walked around and browsed in some of the shops for a while and then went home!  I had a lot of fun spending time with them!

In the usual stripe of my birthday, there was a snag in the evening, but it was a small one.  Steve came home early and told me he wanted to take me out to dinner, which I thought was very sweet, but since my birthday is on Valentine's Day* AND it had fallen on a Friday, I knew it would be a mess out there trying to find a place to go.  We decided on a place (a place we've been before and liked) and even though it was one of the nicer places around, we got a table right away since we got there so early.  I wish I could say we had a lovely dinner, but we didn't.  In fact, we didn't even stay for dinner!  Don't worry, we didn't get into a fight or anything, and I'm even willing to say it was all my fault that we ended up leaving before the waiter even came over! OK, when we were seated, they gave me a rose and placed two pieces of paper and a menu on the table.  Steve picked up the menu and opened it, but said "This is only wine. Where is the food?"  That's when I looked down and saw that the pieces of paper they'd laid down were the menus for the evening.  Apparently, it was a set menu and it was $100 a plate.  Say what?  NOPE.  Look, I'm not adverse to expensive restaurants and I'm not adverse to having money spent on me, but I couldn't in good conscience let Steve spend that kind of money on a dinner we'd just stumbled upon with no notice! Had we planned it, sure, but we just got a table by chance!  I think it was just sticker shock.  To Steve's credit, he was willing to pay for it, but I didn't want him to.  We didn't really know what to do, but I just gathered everything up and took it back up to the hostess and told her we were leaving.  She looked a little shocked, and we probably looked cheap as hell, but we left.  Ugh, it was a bit embarrassing. I felt bad for messing up dinner, but by then everyone was out and we knew anywhere else would be crowded, so we just got barbecue and went home.  Honestly, I think I liked that better anyway!

Don't worry, I'll let Steve buy me expensive food soon, but I at least want some warning first! :)

I was remembered by lots of friends and family, so that made my birthday wonderful no matter what we had for dinner! I love my friends and family so much for thinking of me. They're good people.

*As far as Valentine's Day itself goes, I'm growing more and more indifferent about it.  I mean, I like the sentiment behind it, but I hate the drama! But I love the chocolate, too, so I don't know what to think about it as a whole, so therefore I call indifference.  I will tell you that the backlash against it all is getting on my nerves.  You know, celebrate it, don't celebrate it, I don't care.  However, I get really tired of the people who are so above it all.  They are the ones who talk about how stupid it is and how they don't need a special day to blah, blah, blah.  Of course it's stupid, it's a made up holiday, but geez. Lighten up, Francis. Have some red foil Hershey kisses and chill the hell out about it!