A few candles

Monday, I turned 25.

I have mixed feelings about being such a ripe old age. 25 sounds sophisticated yet spontaneous, mature yet youthful, fun yet accomplished. I hope I can live up to my "25" expectations. But, I have already felt that this year is different. I got back from Brazil, took some time off, and now life as I know it is in full swing. I haven't created an opinion about how busy my life is about to become with my new job I just started today, but that will soon follow. Back to the day of celebration, though...


Monday was a fabulous day, started off with a solid 6hrs of class, and a sprinting run to get sewing supplies for my class. There was some cheesecake in there, before noon, and then when I got out at 3, to my surprise, Tessa my dear cousin was down from SLC and we got to spend some time together. We hit up DI, where I scored a deep wine colored velvet blazer, that Tessa graciously purchased for me. Then we tried the Chocolate, a dessert cafe in Orem. We chose a piece of blackout chocolate cake with a sizable scoop of vanilla ice cream. I am quite picky about dessert bakeries, but it was a decent piece of chocolate cake. And the time with Tessa was really nice, it's been a while since I've been able to spend time with her.
When I got home, I talked to my Dad for a while, and he made me laugh, as always. I treasure my Dad. And then I talked to my Mom for a while, and that was also wonderful. What I would do without my Mother, I really am not sure. Even though I wanted to take a nap, the time ran out, and the evening had begun. We cruised over to Pizzeria 712, where Rique, Lindsey, Whitney, Danielle and I enjoyed a delicious dinner of thin crust pizza and gnocchi. I love their food, it's easily on my top 10 list of favorite restaurants. And as a bonus, our waiter gave me a free breakfast coupon for Communal, the other restaurant by the same guys close to Center St. I have wanted to go there since I got back from my mission, and now I can, free of charge. Perfect. After dinner, we went to Rique's apartment at the Lanai where she pulled out two beautiful cakes from the fridge, perfectly frosted and crafted with love. I was so touched by her kindness in throwing me this get together. Everyone arrived and they sung to me, and I blew out the candles. I wished really hard something I have been wanting for some time. And then we all munched on cake and ice cream til we couldn't handle any more sugar, and then we shifted the party to the bikes.
We rode our bikes around Provo until the clock struck midnight and the party was over.

I am grateful to be home to celebrate my birthday. It was an epic day. I felt celebrated and loved. Couldn't be much better. I also got emails from Chan and Lance wishing me a happy bday. All good.