I am now 30. Flirty 30. Dirty 30. Yesterday was probably one of my better birthday celebrations. There were multiple hiccups that made me… Agitated to say the least, but in the end the overall memory is joyous.  I always try to make my birthdays something of a “thing”. It makes me dread them less, I tend to get excited, and in all, I enjoy them so much more. This year ended up in something that is a huge representation of my life so far. But, I haven’t gotten to that yet. So let’s first start with the dress…

Last weekend, I was in Kentucky visiting my parents. My mom and I were wandering through Hobby Lobby (as you do), and I was describing the dress I wanted for my birthday dinner. Something Satin, Something empire waisted with an A-line skirt, something that would hide the multitude of sins my body carries currently. I said I really didn’t have the money, or time, to go shopping for it so I would just wear something in my closet, however my DREAM dress would be something like that. She understood, and my little fantasy went on to the closet of my mind.

Fast forward to Saturday morning. One of my best friends came in from New York City. I was showing her around my very small town, and we went into a boutique that I love, but can rarely afford. She wanted a new purse for Spring/Summer. I just wanted to browse and touch the pretty things. But low and behold, the dress was there. It was nearly everything I wanted. It had straps, I could get over that, but otherwise it was exactly what I was hoping for. It was on the clearance rack, and it was in my size! I grabbed the tag, $190, $152, $135, $95, $59, $47.50 YES! THIS DRESS WOULD BE MINE! Well, only if it fit.

I skedaddled into the dressing room and it fit like a dress was supposed to. It hid all of my flaws (except my chicken wings… I’m working on them), but it’s so… Mad Men and fabulous. The woman at the counter told me it was designed by one of the designers who does costumes for the show, and for whatever reason it made me a bit more excited. My dress was there, and I didn’t have to shop for it. Not really.

How can you not love this dress? I mean, really?

We went home after wandering around a museum, getting kicked out for having green peppers. (Seriously, there was a green pepper incident). Got home, watched some Community. Then got ready. I decided that a french twist with a beehive up top (a bumped-twist if you will) would be the best look for the evening, classy, but up and out of the way. So we did some work with teasing and coaxing and angering my hair…

It didn’t work. Seriously. All of this work, and a hell of a lot of hairspray my hair would not stay teased and coaxed. It fell. Horrendously. Plain ole french twist it was… I was OK with that.

Hoodwink went for a ride.

Off we went to the restaurant, ate a ridiculous amount of food, drank a fabulous Pinot Noir from Oregon (om nom nom), had fancy-pants cotton candy for dessert. Saw a couple use the cotton candy for fore-play in their booth. Pictures were taken and all and all we had a good time. We went from there to a sushi-joint/night club had a drink, then went to another bar and drank some more… There was a pirate ship above the bar. I was intimidated. We counted down until midnight, and then we cheered when I was 30. I am no longer in my 20s. I can no longer be irresponsible… That is until the next joint…

Seriously. There's a ship above the bar

We then went to an Irish Pub and we drank, and my friend Justyn’s boyfriend sang Billy Idol to me (I <3 Karaoke), and the whole bar sang Queen.

I had such a fabulous time with all of my friends. I may have had some hang-ups early in the day because some friends bailed because they had “better things to do”, but let’s be honest, I couldn’t ask for a better group of friends.

If my 30s are like this, I will survive them and so much more.

Note:

There are a lot more pictures. I may do a blog entry later in the week that is less about my dress and more about the people and the fun things we talked about. There aren’t a lot of pictures, but the few I have are AWESOME.