Happy Birthday Sarah!

I've been writing less lately simply because I've been so very stressed lately, between finding an apartment (not very successful so far), finding a job (less successful), and getting rid of most of my stuff (let's not even go there). So sometimes it's nice to have an excuse to just shove all that aside for a day and celebrate something. And yesterday I did just that. Because yesterday was Sarah's birthday.

Her family wanted to plan a surprise party for her, so I was recruited. I told Sarah on Saturday night that I was taking her out to lunch on Sunday, which wasn't technically a lie. And then yesterday, I picked her up, stalled for a while (we battled some gyms in Pokemon Go) until her mom sent the text that everyone was ready, and drove down to Downtown Willow Glen.

"SURPRISE!" everyone yelled at us as we walked into the (very crowded) Crepevine restaurant in Willow Glen. Her parents, her sister, and some of her other friends were all there waiting for us, and she hadn't suspected a thing! (Well, okay, she had been a little suspicious when I mentioned wanting to 'check the prices' in Crepevine but she still hadn't expected everyone to be there. Perhaps I should have said our imaginary 'reservations' were at Crepevine but I don't actually think you can make reservations there.)

After lunch (or brunch or whatever it was supposed to be. Brunch I guess.) we walked down to another Downtown Willow Glen spot - Glow, a "candle lounge" where people can come create their own customised candles. I've walked past this place many times, but never gone in, fearful of  how it would affect my allergy to synthetic scents. I was actually okay - I didn't go near the scent wall, I let Sarah pick out the scent for my candle so I wouldn't have to breathe it in. I'm giving it to her anyway. We collaborated on it, as you can see in this before and after shot. It's "Undertale" themed because we're a bunch of nerds, and it's apparently Cinnamon Roll scented. Sarah also made a Bill Cipher candle (not pictured, unfortunately - I'm still waiting on her photos of the finished products), I'm not sure if he ended up scented or not.

Candle Squad

After all the candle-making festivities were over - it took about 2 hours iirc, but it was really fun and I'd love to go back sometime - we headed back to her parents' house for food, cake, presents, and...

...a freakin' piñata.

(Yes it is shaped like a Pokeball.)

Look, the last time I hit a piñata was over a decade ago, at a friend's quinceañera. But it turns out that college kids (like Sarah) and college grads (like myself) love the damn things as much as any kid. Hey, any excuse to beat things with a stick and get candy out of it works for me, and in my experience, collegiates and twenty-somethings aren't all that different from small children at the end of the day. Shut up and let me have my candy.

After everyone bartered and traded candies to get a mix that we were all satisfied with (apparently I'm the only one who likes Werther's Originals), we ate food - barbeque chicken for everyone else, spanakopita for my vegetarian ass - while the "Hamilton" soundtrack played in the background. It makes surprisingly pretty good party music, believe it or not.

After a brief few rounds of Cards Against Humanity (Sarah won - not because it was her birthday but because she's pretty good at that game) it was time for cake and presents. My gift for her was entirely Team Mystic themed - everything in it was either blue, or Pokemon themed. It consisted of a pokeball bath bomb, a master ball keychain (it opens up so you can keep money or surprises in there), a jar of only blue gummy bears, a blue candy cane, a S'mores-flavoured chocolate bar in blue foil, a Big Blue bath bomb from LUSH, a Frozen bath bomb from LUSH, a blue "fortune-telling" bath bomb, and a blue Starbucks gift-card loaded with $20 - all in a blue bag. I worked hard putting all of that together.




After that, it was cake time (I didn't eat any cake but I think it was mango flavoured), then we watched some of our favourite episodes of "Community" (I forgot how much I like that show).

All in all, it was a really fun, low-key kinda day. Sarah is definitely worth celebrating, and I'm happy to have done my part to make the day great for her. She truly is the light of my life, and I really hope her birthday was as great for her as it was for me, because I had a lot of fun.

Happy birthday, Sarah!
-Nym-