A Birthday Weekend

I've never really been one for birthdays. I know some people get really excited for them. But, really, I'm still not convinced that everyone in the world needs to work their day around yours to make it special. Nor am I convinced that it's an occasion that you need to skip school for or take off work for. I originally thought to myself "just thai food with Charly and biking or something is what we'll do," but boy was I wrong. Charly went over and beyond to make my 23rd birthday special on June 15, in fact he turned it into a whole weekend. Friday night was the farmers market for the first (and most likely only time this year) and thai food. And you must know, chuck hates the farmer's market. I usually walk around the place once to get a gist of the place, then do another few rounds to really hone in and look at all the foods and things I want. After the first lap, though, I heard Charly behind me: "I can't do another lap," in a weary voice. You also must know our farmers market is only every Friday night and really small, like twenty vendors small. I'll take what I can get though and satisfied myself with some chocolate covered peanuts (which, of course, remind me of my dad), and we went and at dinner (mango curry please).

Saturday morning we woke up early and hiked out into the mountains to watch the sun rise as a yellow blob above the peaks. I expected to feel something nothing short of majestic as we huddled in the brisk morning air together, but we got there an hour early and it was more like "I'm done, it's cold, let's go. I'm over it, I don't need to see this,"every ten minutes, and then Chuck and I agreeing that we had to stay and see it through just for the sole reason that we could say we did and never get the urge to do it again. And it really was beautiful as it rose, but I didn't receive any life affirming thoughts or guidance. Next it was free breakfast at the Legacy flight museum just down the road from our house and a ride in a T-6 that, oh my gosh, I got to fly myself for about twenty minutes and then do some roles in. My pilot took us over the Kelly Canyon range and it was fun to try to pick out biking trails and see rock climbing crags from above. After that it was lunch a hour away at Charly's dad's side of the family reunion. This is where it gets dicey, because after I finished my fourth cookie I felt the worst pain in my stomach. Like a pain that I hadn't felt for a really, really long time. Ok, I thought, it's because I ate so much. I could barely walk, but I didn't say much about it and accompanied the nephews, nieces, and husband to where the paddleboat was and eventually it passed. After that we impulsively decided to go to Bear World (like a "hey there's the Bear World billboard, wanna go?" as we were driving by it." I mean, the pain passed mostly, but not enough to go to Pocatello and bike, so we felt the need to do one more thing. Let me tell you, those baby bears could melt my heart, especially the one that kept accidentally shocking itself on the fence and throwing a fit about it. I loved it so much we went twice in one day because we wanted to get out of the car and it was too hot for Mace to be in there. Plus, dogs will struggle when driving closely by dozens of bears, deer, bison, etc. We ended the day with some burn notice and that was that...until Sunday.

Which really isn't as exciting, just a nice day at church followed by tin foil dinners, ice krispies, and cheesecake at Charly's parents house in Blackfoot. After that last bite of cheese cake I felt it again. That pain, accompanied by nausea. To cut it short, I barely made the hour long car ride home and then proceeding to lose four pounds to the stomach virus. Not to mention that when I get anything stomach related, I get it bad. Seemingly worse than everyone else. Then again, I could totally just be a wuss. But man alive, was it just awful.
My mom sent me the cutest card, but I have no idea what you are and aren't suppose to show with a check so I just laid those crappy white dots all over the place.