Happy birthday to me :)

Now those of you who know me irl or even who've been following the blog for a while (thanks for that btw!) might be questioning the subject line a bit because, well, traditionally my birthday falls in July.

And so it did this year too :)   But Stephy and Paula decided that for my birthday they would take me wardrobe shopping.

Now this too might raise a few eyebrows since it's generally reasonably well known that I have less than no fashion sense (yes this is possible -- whatever I pick is *worse* than whatever I started with; it's a horrible downward spiral) and I also despise clothing shopping.  So not something most friends would think of making a gift of.

But given how much I enjoy it (read avoid at all costs) an expedition was rather desperately needed, and at least with the two of them I was bound to spend most of the day laughing.   And Steph has more than enough fashion sense for just about everybody I know put together, so there was actual hope of coming out looking somewhat put together.

So this seemed like a good idea.  But in July, when my birthday actually occurred, Steph was busy dressing everybody in her extended family for her sister's wedding.  And August was crazy busy with showing.  And by September Paula was back at school.   So between the three of us, this was the first day we could all arrange.

Somebody asked me once how I keep any of my friends living the crazy schedule I do -- I keep my friends because most of my friends are the type of people who are as busy as I am!  hahaha so they get it.  And we just schedule each other in weeks in advance if we have to :)  It works.  For the ones who matter, it works.  And the ones who don't matter, well now they hardly qualify as friends do they?

Alright, so now we understand why I get a birthday in October.  And how shopping came to be a "good" thing...  hahaha

I taught in the morning so Stephy came and rode as well.   Paula joined us at the barn and I took them and Hailey over to see the new place (ummmm more about that in its own post :) -- gorgeous day out, seemed a good time to show them around :)  

So we dropped Hailey back at the current barn after our exploration and headed out shopping -- but like all dreaded things, shopping is to be avoided till the last possible second.  So lunch came first :)   mmmmmm yummy lunch.   Of course after lunch I felt more like a nap then shopping, but Steph was energized enough for all of us so off we went.

And it was surprisingly painless.  Paula and I mostly wandered and mocked the more horrendous fashions, while Steph bravely disappeared into the darkest depths of the store, every once in a while popping out to hand me something and let us know she was still alive, before disappearing again.

Every once in a while I'd get shoved into a box to try on a mountain of clothing -- and trust me -- this is a mountain I've no interest in photographing much less climbing!   But being the good sport I am, I went along with this with only a modicum of whining >;-P  Met one sales lady who was a bit of a nightmare, but other than her they basically all took one look at Steph on a mission and left us alone -- I'm sure they were looking at me and being eternally grateful I'd brought my own personal shopper and they wouldn't have to try to fix my lack of fashion.

Sadly, our shopping expedition was cut 3 or 4 stores short by them closing.  awwwww.  I was devastated, let me tell you.  Or, you know, grateful.  I always get those two words mixed up.  English is a tricky language after all *g*

So in the end I had a reasonable collection of clothing that means I don't have to do this again soon AND it actually looks good :)   So Stephy saved my first impressions *g* and I'm good to go.   Sweet.

Now no birthday is complete without ice cream.  This might be a July thing, but I argue it holds for all times of year.  So we def needed to detour through a Baskin Robbins for ridiculously sized ice cream.  mmmmmm ice cream...

So reality entered in for a bit and we went back to the barn to take care of the horses.   Fastest night check EVER.  But having three people who know what needs to be done and can divide and conquer helps a lot.  Horses fed, watered, wrapped and blanketed in like 15 mins.

Why the rush?  Well cause Stephy and I had decided while sitting in BR that we wanted to go to the movies.  The movie that started an hour and 15 mins after that conversation.  While we were 30 mins away from the barn that's 20 mins from the theatre.  AND needed gas.  And when I got to the gas station the pump wouldn't work because the attendant was on his own planet and neglected to push the button till I got annoyed enough to push the call button and wake him up.  So yeah, little tight on time.

Paula decided she had to be all responsible and go home and study or some foolish thing like that, so *after* helping with chores (cause that's the kind of girl she is) she totally ditched us (cause that's the kind of girl she is :)

So Stephy and I made it to the theatre right about 7:15.  Bought our tickets and junk food (cause you know, we hadn't had enough of that yet) and got seated just as previews were starting.  Perfect timing really.

Movie was Footloose and it was SO much fun.  I wasn't really expecting to enjoy it all that much, but it seemed the right flakiness level to finish off a fairly silly day.  But I really enjoyed it.  Up there with Grease or Dirty Dancing in the dance-chick-flick category.   Just leaves you smiling and feeling like blaring the music on the way home.

Which is precisely what I did.

So thank you ladies for such a fun birthday!  And a lovely deviation from my usual reality :)