My Birthday

My birthday this year was wonderful!! It fell on a Wednesday so I of course had to go to work and unfortunately I have to be at work at 8:00 for meetings on Wednesday so the getting up early was not too exciting :(, however I got off an hour earlier so that was nice. At our staff meeting that morning, Jenny put it on the agenda that it was my birthday so the director Dr. Bridges played the clarinet and everyone sang which was really sweet. The rest of the work day was fairly uneventful but about 2 hours before I was supposed to leave, Dr. Bridges announced that someone at the door had something for me. I thought maybe it was one of my student org kids bringing me dues but when I walked out from our little "hole" a girl was standing there with an adorable bouquet of flowers and a happy birthday balloon. I was so excited but a little confused at who might have sent it. My first thought was of course Alex because this was an Alex type gesture, but when I opened the card, I saw it was from my Mom and her coworker Nancy. I immediately called her and let her know I got it and asked her how on earth she knew my work address (I had forgotten that she had one of my business cards and the address was on it). When I was younger, my mom would surprise me every few years with balloons or something, but it was the first time she had done it since I was in college so I was really excited. So Jenny and I had some fresh flowers to enjoy for the rest of the afternoon! :)

After I got off work, I headed home to just relax. Alex had called and said he had special dinner plans for us that night and I had to be ready at 6:00 sharp (he knows me...I'm always late ;)) so around 5ish I started getting ready to go. I had to meet him at his apartment so I headed over there and when I got there, he gave me my birthday present: a collector's edition of "Wizard of Oz" and a gift certificate for a 1-hour massage from Nancy's. He then told me that dinner was going to be the big part of my present.

Since Alex and I have been dating awhile, we have pretty much exhausted all restaurants in Tuscaloosa so we usually head to Birmingham for special occasions. However, there was one restaurant we had not been to in Tuscaloosa: Kozy's. We knew they did something called a Chef's Playground, but every time we had attempted to go, they were full. Little did I know that on my birthday they were having a "Chef's Playground" and Alex had been trying to get us in and at the last minute on Wednesday, there was an opening! I was so excited to be able to go (and a little nervous because I wasn't sure what to expect!)

When we got there, we immediately fell in love with the place. As I have mentioned many times, we love the old Hollywood style and this place was perfect. They had a live piano player and the pretty little tables...it was amazing! :) Anyway, since it was the Chef's Playground, it had a fixed menu which I was excited about. Alex warned me that it would probably be a little strange, and
when I looked at the menu, I was a little nervous because none of menu items were anything that I would normally eat, but I decided to be a trooper and try them (it even included Kangaroo!!). The waiter was amazing and even the owner came out and talked to us in between each course so we got his take on it which was really cool. (Check out the menu...it's crazy!) Surprisingly, everything was really good except the calamari manicotti and even the owner said he was a little disappointed in it as well because it was a huge piece and it was very chewy. However, the rest of the meal, including the kangaroo was really good!! In the beginning the portions were tiny so we could eat the whole thing, but as the night went on the portions got bigger and I unfortunately couldn't eat all of the last 3 courses :( Poor Alex had stayed up late the night before so I had to keep nudging him awake (I have to admit, the atmosphere and lighting were extremely relaxing! ;)) After we left the restaurant, we went back to Alex's to watch a movie. If you know me at all, I'm a huge fan of scary movies so we watched Hostel Part II...I know super romantic, but it was my choice! :)

Anyway, overall my birthday was wonderful!! I feel so excited to have such wonderful friends and family who thought about me on my special day :)

I'm going to get some stuff done here at work so I will update later :)

Maegan