In Which It Is My Birthday

So compared to last year's birthday, this one was just slightly more laid back.  I didn't have a single bout of hysteria or anything!  While last year was certainly dramatic, I think I prefer my birthdays a little more, um, sedate.  Luckily Jeremy obliged by not getting blown up again or anything, and Connor took the day off from trying to die on me.  So it was pretty great!

We had respite care all day, so we started off around ten in the morning with a trip to (of course) one of our little coffee shops.  Then we took a leisurely stroll down to the new used bookstore that just opened up downtown.  What better way to start out a birthday?

After browsing through the book selection, we walked back to Pioneer Park and tooled around the Puyallup Farmer's Market; it's much smaller on Sundays but tends to have discounted prices compared to Saturday's market.  Jeremy bought me an adorable planter made of an old cast iron saucepan filled with an assortment of Hens and Chicks, which we then took home so I could give it a place of pride in my kitchen garden window.  Isn't it cute?  The cats haven't touched my other succulents that have been growing in the windowsill (the cats aren't supposed to be up there in the first place, but they blatantly ignore that rule) for several months, so I'm hoping they'll leave these alone too. 

Anyway, then we drove down to Olympia and wandered around that farmer's market for a while, because in my opinion if there's one thing better than a birthday trip to a farmer's market, it's a birthday trip to two farmer's markets.  I picked up some lovely handmade soap there.  I am wholeheartedly and unabashedly addicted to good-smelling handmade soap, and my supply was running dangerously low.  If we get too low Jer goes out and buys Dial soap as a replacement (horrors!), so I had to make sure that I stocked up. 

We stopped in a little coffee tasting room down there and picked up some beans for Jeremy, ate at one of my favorite restaurants (the Urban Onion) and enjoyed some time just strolling around in each other's company.

It was pretty hot outside, so we spent the rest of the day inside various places.  These places included a different coffee shop where we spent some time sipping on our cool beverage of choice and (of course) reading, a different bookstore (see my earlier reasoning on farmer's markets for my philosophy on bookstores and coffee shops) and dinner at a Japanese Steakhouse, which involved two of my favorite things: tasty animals and fire.

So all in all it was a pretty great birthday-- just the break that I needed from our crazy schedule of late and the perfect distraction from the reminder that I am now 28 years old and already have gray hair.  And I'm totally not kidding about that.  My present to myself later in this week: touching up my roots.

Happy Birthday to Me!

~Jess