(Cough.) A visual representation of Birthday Week, through some iPhone Instagram pictures (verbal recap at the end, if you’re so inclined):
[Giant birthday cupcake, made from scratch by my boss and our CEO – just one of the many reasons why I love my job]
[….and approximately 24 more reasons to go along with it. I was instructed to hand these out to everyone at work, because I never got to do it in school!! Love.]
[Getting to pass out my cupcakes in “school”!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am smiling very big, in case you can’t tell. Also, that’s my girl Tatiana. She’s awesome.]
[Secondary caption: OMG I need a haircut. What is that, even??]
[Canvas and Cocktails at PoshSplat Boulder (you can’t see his glass of red)]
[The finished product: one of my more valiant attempts at creating art, fueled entirely by alcohol, perseverance and old age, in that order. They helped.]
[Relief. Are his eyes crossed??? Also: PARTY DOG!!]
[Wonderful visitors who truly made my weekend]
[A fitting variety of beverages for my Birthday Brunch…”salad” (a bloody mary) and “sustenance” (coffee in turquoise Fiestaware!!! I may or may not have bought that mug for myself as a birthday present. To myself. OKAY I bought two. Never mind.)]
[Secondary caption: Bags. Under eyes. How old am I, again??]
[A turquoise birthday ice cream cake: simply amazeballs. (I say amazeballs now. It’s catching on at work.)]
I’ve been at a little bit of a loss for words in trying to describe last week (this happens never).
I pretty regularly take time out of my day to reflect on how grateful I am for all of the amazing people in my life, but occasionally, those same people (who are awesome on a normal day) come forward and do something extra-awesome (but still perfectly in line with their natural, awesome tendencies) and make me go WOW wow wowwwwwwww people are so great.
So, although I am almost certainly blowing you away with my extremely articulate and easy-to-understand explanation of what I’m trying to get across here, I’ll cut to the chase: I am so, so touched by how kind people can be, and so thrilled and endlessly grateful for the sheer volume of extraordinary people in my life.
I am constantly surrounded by such extreme wit, kindness and thoughtfulness, and having so many amazing people present in my life is something that I will never take for granted. Thank you to everyone for making this transition into official mid-twentydom a true pleasure and delight. Not one text, phone call, FaceTime session, Facebook message or handmade postcard (yes, that happened) went unnoticed or unloved.
Birthday Week highlights included:
- Seeing Ben Folds play (for the 4th time and 4th city since I was 15) at the Ogden Theater in Denver
- Going to the midnight opening of the last Harry Potter movie (sob, and yawn) (yawn because I was tired) (not because I didn’t like the movie) (because I did like it.)
- Seeing a fun production of Hairspray – fun to watch, but I miss broadway shows.
- Going really slow down the Alpine Slide at Heritage Square, a bizzaro-Western-style mini-theme park in Golden, CO
- Painting things and drinking wine with My Man, along with several memorable meals
- A visit from some cherished family members
- A customized happy birthday serenade from an 8-year-old girl playing a ukelele on the Pearl Street Mall…organized entirely by Lila. Some 9-year-old, huh?
- And of course, an indeterminate number (3, but who’s counting??) of margaritas at the Rio with some fantastic people.
Needless to stay, I’m STILL exhausted.
AND since I know you’re already sick of the sapfest above and I have no interest in indulging myself further, you can check out my Pinterest pictures where I put pretty things. It’s kind of like a second blog, only not at all. It’s just pictures. That I didn’t take. Shouldn’t I be in marketing? I should totally be in marketing.
Thanks again, guys. I really, really do love ya.
XO -Tess
TESS TAKES OVER THE WORLD! 
