Birthday #36

This is my first blog post using instagram photos so congratulate me! This year I turned 36 and I had a great birthday.  If you have been reading my blog for a while now, you know that I am none too pleased about aging.  That's putting it lightly, I am fighting it every step of the way.  So this year for my birthday in an effort not to celebrate it, I had planned a trip to San Fransisco.  Well, Spencer got sick and my trip got cancelled.  Rather than pout about how my birthday is no fun, I decided to have Spencer book me a night at my favorite Portland Hotel, The Nines.  It was amazing.  I had planned on going alone, but Holly said she would meet me for dinner and shop with me for a couple of hours.  Then my shopping buddies, Rachael and Wendy came down for the rest of the night and we had a late night cake/ding dongs/ and a nail painting party. I couldn't have asked for a better birthday.  

 

 

 Just a few supplies for the trip

 

The view from the Hotel

My room

 My birthday gift to myself.

 I got my first pair of boots.

 Reading magazines with Holly

 Eating cake and pudding with Wendy in the club lounge.

 And the pinnacle moment, getting my ears pierced. 

 Rachael and I picking out my studs.

 

 DONE!

 Rachael brought sparkling cider for breakfast.

 And celebrating with my Dad on Sunday 11/11, because we share our birthday.

This is Warren with his cousin and best friend Jake. I hope my next 4 years of birthdays are just as fun as this, that way turning 40 won't be so brutal.  

Happiness hit her like a bullet in the back.

 Today I celebrated my 4 year birthday!

4 years ago I was laying in a hospital bed, with stitches in my chest,

paralyzed on my left side, unable to walk by myself.  Today a couple of my new friends brought me some flowers, some of my old friend took me out to lunch in the Pearl District and then out to Cupcakes.  It was a great day.

 

After my surgery I had a new sense of urgency.  A sense that what I did and when I did it  really mattered, that I had to do things, see things, and meet people. I had a sense that I had something to do, I just wasn't sure what.  I spent a couple of years struggling, wondering, even envying Spencer for finding his niche and being able to go after it.  Well this fall I found mine.  And happiness hit me like a train on the track.  Lyrics from "Dog Days are over" from Florence and the Machine. 

 

I love the fall, I have been enjoying every moment of this beautiful month.

 It feels good to be happy again.

 Flowers from my new Friends, and a new necklace from Spence

 Little Big Burger in the Pearl District

 

 A little garden park in the Pearl that we found to eat our cupcakes:)

By the way, I think I am going to pursue a Masters degree! Sounds crazy, I know especially when if,you have been reading my blog for a while, you know that I don't know where a comma goes in sentence and I have a tenuous grasp on the English language in general.

Summer Highlights-a Funeral

 

sisters and cousins

This August my Dad's first cousin Kirk Anderson died.  We were all really sad.  He was my Dad's age and he wasn't sick.  The upside to this was that Holly, my parents and I all went on a little rode trip to Boise, ID and met Kiran to go to the funeral.  At the risk of sounding disrespectful, we had the best time. I love my family with every fiber of my being, there is no group of people I'd rather be with on the planet with than them.  They are the kindest people in the world to me, they don't judge me, the love me, and they make me laugh not until I cry, but until I can't breath.  So to go to a funeral not just with my family, but with a chapel full of my family, I was kind of elated.  It was wonderful.  The funeral was beautiful, funny,  jokes told by everyone, laughter everywhere.  Afterwords we went out to lunch with more extended family and they too were the most kind thoughtful caring people you ever want to meet.  I love family. 

After the funeral I got to spend the rest of the weekend with my Mom, Dad and Sisters.  It was a nice break.  Right before I left Spencer said to me, "Aren't you going to pack some snacks for the trip?" I said "No, I'm not the Mom on this trip, I'm the daughter and younger sister, you have no idea how good that feels, how relaxing." and with Spencer being gone so much I needed the break from packing other people's snacks.

The drive to Boise is about 7 -8 hours.  Holly and I rented 3 movies, we didn't watch 1, all of us talked the whole time. That's an Anderson trait. When we arrived home in about 7 hours I was disappointed and thinking "I was promised an 8 hour drive, circle around the neighborhood Mom!" I'm not ready to be the Mom again.

I can't stress this point to strongly, I love my family and don't know what life would be like without them.

 

We spent 2 hours in this thrift store shopping,

my poor kids got plenty of back to school clothes there:)

 

Boise,ID neighborhoods have mini-libraries right in the middle of the houses. How cute.

 

This is my grandfathers old store.He fit people for prosthetic limbs.

 

This is what I want for my next birthday.

 

This is the cemetery where my grandparents are buried.

 

 

 

Mom's Brother Joe.