My birthday (the big 24) was yesterday. Now that my school years are behind me, birthdays are great. There is no chance of me spending my birthday studying, taking standardized tests, or writing long lab reports. If it’s a work day (like last year), I can take half a day off work. But yesterday was the best of all – a birthday on a Saturday? Yes please.
The weekend started off with dinner at my parents’ on Friday night. We always have chicken and dumplings for my birthday (my favorite) and some sort of fall dessert. This year? German chocolate cheesecake. 🙂 Kevin and I celebrated with my parents and aunt, and I somehow managed to predict half of my presents — but it’s pretty easy when you’ve asked for a chocolate orange every year since 1999. Among the blessings were a bluray player, Fitz’s coffee cola (yes please), and a few additions to my kitchen. My apartment is finally complete!
In some parts of the country (e.g. Seattle) a late September birthday could be depressing, as summer fades away. But in St. Louis, a late September birthday guarantees perfect weather 95% of the time – sunshine, 70-85 degrees, and no shortage of outdoor activities. Kevin surprised me with Einstein’s bagels and a sweet card on Saturday morning, before we headed over to Eckert’s in Millstadt for apple picking. The apples were delicious, the pumpkins flew (from the pumpkin cannon), and the pigs ran (in pig races, of course). And I got a little white pumpkin, to decorate my apartment for Halloween / Thanksgiving. 🙂
We didn’t pick pumpkins, but we walked around in the pumpkin patch a bit. Linus didn’t make an appearance. photo credit to KevinWe’re really Midwestern. It’s the greatest.
After a successful morning of Midwestern fun, we drove back to my place, where I opened my birthday present. Though I knew about this ahead of time (we selected it while at Disney World last month), I was so excited to finally have something from my favorite Disney movie. Just hung it up this afternoon — the perfect addition to my apartment!
so happy 🙂 photo credit: Kevin
After a simple lunch at my place, we relaxed for a bit and then headed to 5:00 mass at the Basilica, since we anticipated a late night ahead. I hadn’t been to the Basilica since a field trip in third grade, so it was definitely interesting to see it all again.
Kevin surprised me with dinner at Giovanni’s on the Hill, a nice Italian restaurant that created dishes for Oprah Winfrey’s TV show, Ronald Reagan’s inauguration, and also has a dish named after George W. Bush. I obviously had the farfelline del presidente Reagan (shocking). We were seated in the middle of the restaurant, and was surprised by a special birthday dessert!
yum! photo credit to Kevin
The evening ended with a party hosted by one of Kevin’s friends, which was a lot of fun.
All in all, this was probably the most wonderful birthday I’ve ever had. It was a long day full of magical memories and happy moments, all spent with my favorite person 🙂 23 brought some amazing things, and I can’t wait to see what 24 has in store!
Note: I started this post during the week, so it’s about the last few weekends. Happy reading 🙂
Fall has always been my favorite season. For most of my life, there was one explanation (and one explanation only): my birthday is at the end of September. When I went off to college, fall became associated with more wonderful things – pumpkin spice lattes, football Saturdays, and an excuse to wear leggings as pants.
Now that I am out of college, I have some different reasons. I love having the windows open in my apartment (lower electric bills…), a chance to wear one of my dozens of scarves, boots, hot mugs of tea, delicious recipes, and a ton of excuses to be outside.
Last weekend was one of the best weekends I’ve had in a long time. It was busy, but so reenergizing. 🙂
Kevin and I started out the weekend with dinner at Dressel’s, an amazing farm-to-table restaurant near us in the Central West End. Though the lamb burger was absolutely delicious, the true highlight of the meal was the pumpkin ale. (Another fall thing I can’t get enough of…) Amazingly, we didn’t see anyone I know from high school, college, or church. 😛 After our delicious dinner, we headed back to watch The Shining. Adding to the creepiness was that I had visited the Stanley Hotel (filming location) before, while on a family trip to Estes Park in 2008…
Though thoroughly creeped out, I managed to go to sleep before an amazing Saturday. It’s no secret that I am incredibly passionate about STEM outreach. I just feel compelled to communicate the creativity and innovation that STEM careers provide, and to help the world see that engineers make it a better place. Never once did I expect to find someone who supported me so much in this goal, and contributes to it himself. Kevin launched an outreach program last Saturday, thanks to a grant from Tau Beta Pi. I was delighted to help this talented group of students as they built unmanned “spacecraft” to travel to Mars. I love kids, and I love seeing them get excited about math and science. I can’t wait to help out with future events this semester (and beyond!) and I am so happy to have found someone who believes in the same things as me.
After a wonderful morning, we headed up to Fitz’s in the Loop. Fitz’s is one of my go-to St. Louis staples. As a kid, I loved watching the bottling line… and as an engineer, I still love watching the bottling line! Plus, it’s the only place in St. Louis where I can drink Kaldi’s coffee cola. We enjoyed a delicious lunch (love those bottler burgers) while enjoying Fitz’s soda and watching college football.
The weather was so nice, that we couldn’t reasonably justify going back inside. So, we headed out to St. Louis Premium Outlets in Chesterfield, to indulge in a little shopping. I picked up a few beautiful pieces from J. Crew Outlet – I can’t justify the prices at the regular J. Crew, but the outlet (with discounts) is a bit closer to my price range…
Thoroughly exhausted, we headed back to our neighborhood, to indulge in some college football. My pick of the afternoon? Georgia vs. South Carolina. Kevin chose a slightly more logical game (Iowa vs. Iowa State). Most important, though, was Mizzou’s win over UCF (38-10). Though I am still bitter that they improved after I graduated, I am really happy to see my alma mater gaining some respect.
Note: It’s now the day after a terrible loss to Indiana. I’m eating my words on this one. 😦
Last Sunday brought church (as usual), a quick lunch at my parents’ (needed to get those coats…), followed by a SWE catch-up afternoon (so much to do!) and a delicious dinner with great friends. I have avoided Indian and Thai food for most of my life – my palate of mild tastebuds was not up to the challenge. I took the Thai food plunge a few years ago during one of my internships, and finally ate Indian food last weekend! Janelle, Angela, and I headed to Rasoi, a nice Indian place in the Central West End. I was so embarrassed, having to ask our server about the mildest options on the menu… but it was so worth it. I settled on a simple chicken tikka masala with plain naan, and it was so delicious! I’m so glad that I found something that I can eat there. 🙂
The week wasn’t particularly interesting until Thursday, when Kevin scored impromptu Cardinals tickets from work! Our seats were on the 1st base line, section 135, row 3. And what a view. We didn’t stay for all 13 innings (left at the beginning of the 9th), but were luckily there for all that excitement in the bottom of the 8th. I’m starting to really like baseball.
final score: cards 3, brewers 2
We walked over to the Balloon Glow on Friday night over at Forest Park (the precursor to the balloon race on Saturday). The balloons were so beautiful, but the crowds were a little crazy, so we called it a night after a little bit…
So, shifting gears a bit. My fifth consecutive annual SWE conference is next month (finally!) and I anticipate presenting outreach awards again at Celebrate SWE. For those of you not part of SWE – there are two large banquets at every annual SWE conference. The Friday night banquet (Achievement Banquet) honors individual award recipients (typically professional SWE members), while the Saturday night banquet (Celebrate SWE!) focuses on honoring collegiate members and collegiate/professional sections for their accomplishments. I presented last year’s outreach awards in front of a 1300-person audience (it’s not bad… everyone behind the first row looks like little specks), and am so excited to do it again.
You’re probably wondering why I brought this up. Well, I finally bought a dress. It is silver, sparkly, flouncy, and truly perfect. 🙂 Stay tuned next month for pictures – I can’t wait to wear it! Even better was that I found it in the first store I walked into (Dillard’s), in the first round of dresses to try on. 🙂
After that, I headed over to Crate & Barrel (it had been awhile) for a muffin tin, a nicer wine bottle opener, and a replacement wine stopper. I bought a beautiful one on my recent trip to Disney World, but it unfortunately broke… never buying a cork one again. I also indulged a bit with a pumpkin shaped cookie cutter – couldn’t resist. Then I headed over to Trader Joe’s and Target (typical) and stocked up on groceries for the next two weeks.
I braved the balloon race traffic to get back home to the CWE. Later in the day, Kevin and I headed downtown to the Oktoberfest celebration at Urban Chestnut, jointly hosted by Urban Chestnut and Schlafly. I am now the proud owner of a ginormous beer stein, that I will probably never use again. At least it looks nice in my cabinet? (Note: Urban Chestnut’s oktoberfest beer is awesome.) We ate a delicious dinner at the Fountain on Locust (just a block or so from Urban Chestnut)… I can’t get over how good their food is. We stuck with our favorites — the Fountain Porchetta with a Stutz salad for me, and the pesto chicken sandwich with a St. Louis City salad for Kevin.
Today, like nearly every other Sunday in my life, I got up and headed off to church. But instead of driving back home, I accompanied my parents back to their house, prior to driving over to Illinois to my grandpa’s house. Like everything else in the family, his birthday is at the end of September. Growing up, I shared my birthday week with my grandpa’s birthday (the 23rd), my grandparents’ anniversary (the 28th), and my great-grandpa’s birthday (the 29th). It’s a miracle that no one else laid claim to the 27th before I showed up. 😛 We enjoyed a simple summery lunch of brats & hamburgers, coleslaw, baked beans, potato chips, and grapes. So yummy. 🙂
After lunch, I wandered around the property for a bit. I’m a city girl at heart and anticipate living in the suburbs in a few years, but I have a lot of farming / rural heritage and am so proud of it. My great-grandpa’s family operated an alfalfa farm for nearly a hundred years, and one of my great-uncles still farms, tractor and all. Years ago (right before I was born), my grandpa and grandma built a house out in the country (sort of), and I have always enjoyed going there! How can you be sad when this is your post-lunch view?
so beautiful 🙂
We headed back over the river, and I made a simple dinner for Kevin (pasta with shrimp, red pepper, broccoli, and a bit of cheese), watched a little NFL (why did I get a TV…) and finally settled in to finish this overdue post.
I’m feeling so grateful for everything right now. I am finally settling into a rhythm of living independently, working, and balancing all the pieces of my life. After being so burned out this spring, I have been resigning from things slowly but surely, in an effort to focus on those few things that I am deeply passionate about. I’ve been working out a lot more (usually from 4:30-5:00… Jeopardy is addicting) and have been happier in the last few weeks than I have been in a long time. After years of changes, it finally feels as if life is falling into place, and I am so excited to see what happens next.
More to come next week – can’t wait for year 24 to begin soon 🙂
Planes & Pink 