My Birthday

This might have been the best birthday in the history of birthdays. I'm officially 25 years old and 9 days. This year, due to an awesome stroke of luck, Groupon had a paintball deal too good to pass up. $20/person! That included paintballs and equipment. So I got all my friends to buy one, and we went the day after my birthday. It was incredibly fun!! We played capture the flag, war, and most of the time I got to be on the same team as my friends, which meant we got to strategize together... which was super fun. I think I liked seeing a different side to all my friends. Also, I would have died because I got shot in the head the last round.. yikes.

Enjoy some photos from the trip...


Here we are meeting, looking at Chris's gun.

Here we are in our masks, testing the pressure (they have to make sure we're not going to slice each other up with too highly pressurized tanks)

The Group: (left to right: Jeff, Me, Marissa, Andrew, Liz, Chris, and Dan)



Here Marissa and me are waiting for Capture the Flag to start (we were the offense.. so fun!)

Jeff's talking strategy...





We're looking at this poor guy who got shot in the bare arm and has an open wound!

Dan looking all bad A


Andrew looking a bit scared...



Beginning of game #1.. this is the one I got shot in the leg 5 seconds before it ended..


That might be Liz...

Dan..


Liz took out 3 guys on the other team before getting shot in the hand :(

Overall, it was a HUGE WIN!!!! Although I have created a monster with Jeff... he's now obsessed with paintball and wants to get us guns and go every single day...

On to my LOOT!!! Monday, Jeff bought me flowers... Tuesday, he brought me more... Wednesday, more flowers... Thursday a bouquet of my favorite flowers... and Friday he got me a dozen red roses! He did an amazing job making my birthday feel special!

My Mom got me a gift card to Aaron Brothers, because it's an art store and that's a hobby we have in common.. it was incredibly sweet.

Tom and Julie got me a movie I hadn't seen yet, but was awesome!

Even my client got me a gift! She got me these awesome racing laces for your running shoes.. you don't have to tie them, they are super awesome. And she got me a gift card to a running store. She knows me well. She's a sweet woman. I really enjoy being her trainer.

I decided that since I was turning 25, it was time to find my own scent. I wanted something grown-up, sophisticated, not picked out for me, and still "me." I narrowed it down at Sephora to 4 scents... 1) Escada Taj Sunset. 2) Coach Poppy. 3) Viva La Juicy! 4) Gorgio Armani's Aqua Digio.

The girl helping me let me take home samples of all 4, so I had friends smell them, and then I wore each one on seperate days and asked Jeff if he liked it, and if he liked the one the day before better, or the one I had one better.

In the end it was an easy decision. The Escada perfume was too sweet, the Juicy perfume Jeff didn't like much, and in a sniff test between Aqua Digio and Coach Poppy, Coach Poppy won hands down! I love this scent! I had no idea I would love it, either, it smells so much better on my body than it does even in the bottle!

I also realized that with school starting, I will need a computer I can tote around with me. I'm currently using a very old, hand-me-down computer from my Step-Dad, and while it is sufficient for the moment, I want something I can do more with. Which is why, I took advantage of Lenovo's 72-hour sale, and got myself an IdeaPad Y460! I am so excited about this! I think it's going to help me out not only with school, but also with work! I got it for a great deal too! It's normally $1400, I got it for $799, but after taxes and purchasing a 2 year warranty, it ended up being more like $905. That's still $500 cheaper than it would've been. It also has a top of the line i7 processor, and 8 GB ram, a great video card, and I'll be able to do everything I want/need to do and more!

Although the original purpose of buying this computer was not for my birthday, I feel that it counts as a sufficient gift, even if my student loans had to help me get it.. in the end it will be worth it.

And as a final note... I have a large 1/2 inch ganglion cyst in my wrist. They are going to have to operate on me (while I'm under of course) and take it out. This is scheduled to happen 2 Mondays from now. Wish me luck!