enough with the thoughtful discussion already...

I have to live up to the title of lots and lots of nonsense (which I hate but couldn't come up with anything else at the moment), so I'll tell you about my birthday celebrations.

Both sets of parents (mine and Josh's) are out of town, so they sent cards and presents to me ahead of time. Well, they are always out of town, but both sets of parents are out of the country this time around. Mine are in Buenos Aires, his are in London. So I decided to open gifts at midnight on Wednesday night. My inlaws gave me a cute peasant skirt which unfortunately doesn't fit me well, so I'll have to exchange it for something else. Has anyone heard of a store called Evviva? My parents gave me two books on CD, and I am psyched about these because now I can load them onto my ipod and listen on the way to work! I also received (drumroll please) a Burberry raincoat! I am madly in love with it! And this is so unbelievably unlike my parents to buy a designer gift since they are anti-designer anything, but I am NOT complaining! I may name my raincoat, since I am so in love with it.

The dogs gave me a cute card (so thoughtful). Josh and I had decided that with his trip to Costa Rica, a new computer and the new car, we would buy very small gifts for our birthdays. I gave him a painting of Fenway Park by a local artist I found at a street fair and magnetic poetry in Spanish. He gave me an avocado slicer and an avocado masher. And no, I don't know why, or what possessed him, because in my suggestions to him on possible gifts, there was NO MENTION of avocados. Sigh. I have to admit that (selfish bitch that I am) I was a little disappointed. Not because I don't love avocados, I do, but because it didn't seem like a very birthday-appropriate gift. One of my friends compared it to Steve Martin giving his wife the blender in Father of the Bride. Sometimes you just gotta wonder.

BUT, he totally redeemed himself because he also agreed to sit out at Boston Common for three hours holding places for us to see the free Shakespeare in the Park at Boston Common. I got out of work at around 7pm, picked up some burritos for dinner, and met him on the blanket for some Hamlet by moonlight. It was such a great idea that at the last minute our very good friends ditched their plans and met us there also. Hamlet was fabulous, and as usual, I was astounded that for the first five minutes you wonder how you'll ever understand what they are saying, and then it just clicks and you do. I am a huge Shakespeare fan, though, and took whole courses just on his writings in high school and college, so maybe I'm biased.

I cannot forget also, that I received an Honorable Mention for Whine of Substance, over at Phantom Scribbler. That certainly made my day, and I'd like to thank all those that facilitated my whine on Wednesday. Thank you.

The best part of my birthday, is that not ONE of my friends forgot. I am not one of those people that keeps their birthday a secret (ahem) as you might have noticed from my Wednesday Whine. Mainly because I always feel terribly guilty when I miss other people's birthdays and I just get pissed if people get mad that I missed their birthdays. But I still always assume that people will forget because although I'd like to imagine otherwise, I am not the center of their lives. But no one forgot! I got email cards and a couple of Amazon gift certificates and lots of phone calls, and a surprise bouquet of sunflowers from a co-worker.

I have nothing to complain about, it was a fantastic birthday. Tonight we are celebrating with another couple that wanted to come over for a bbq, tomorrow good friends are coming over with their new baby Cate, and I have a top-secret blogger meet-up in the morning. Sunday Josh is taking me on a whale watch because as a non-New Englander, I've never seen whales! I can't wait!

Thanks to all of you for the birthday wishes!