The World's Greatest Birthday

Greetings all!

Well I know there has been some pretty terrific birthdays out there, but Ireland seems to be the place to have the best birthdays EVER. Last year, I celebrated my birthday with Court while visiting her while she studied at UL and I thought it couldn't be topped. I WAS WRONG. I WAS VERY VERY WRONG because NOTHING will ever top the birthday I just had.

It started out on Wednesday night when I got off of work, Eddie and I went out for a joint birthday dinner (as his was the incredibly fun rugby bonanza a few days before) at a lovely little Italian restaurant complete with wine, jazz music and lots of delicious food. I came home to a spotless apartment and some wonderful gifties from my darling cousin and roommate, Corna and was given some love from a number of my favorite people at midnight (IRELAND TIME)-- Aunt Ro and Julianne, I'm lookin at you.

 

Thursday morning I was woken up by the doorbell ringing and a flower delivery courtesy of my fabulous family. While Court went to go get me some birthday bagels and coffee, the doorbell rang again. As I got back out of bed in a huff thinking it was Court being lazy and not wanting to fish for her keys (common occurrence, totally understandable), I begrudgingly got up and buzzed her in and waited at the door to give out to her, but also hug her forever for going out in the rain.

WELL, FOLKS. I ONCE AGAIN WAS WRONG. It was not Courtney, but in fact, Miss Julianne Feller and Meg Hourihan SURPRISING ME FOR MY BIRTHDAY. When I tell you my face went numb, I started to hyperventilate and could not stop yelling, that is not even a little bit of an exaggeration. These hooligans have been planning this for over a month and everyone knew except for me. I have TRULY never been so surprised in my entire life and that in itself was the best gift I could have gotten.

After I began to breathe normally, I had to go to work. Court had told me to take off Saturday because I had a surprise so I opted to work on Thursday instead. Thank God I did! My bosses surprised me with a card, chocolate raspberry cake and a beautiful silver bracelet that is the perfect addition to my wrist!

It worked out perfectly because the girls napped while I was at work and then I met them afterwards at Captain America's for a birthday dinner complete with some of my favorite food, drinks and tons of laughs.

               

Once we got home, we drank some wine, gossiped, enjoyed some delicious red velvet cupcakes and laughed some more. It was truly my best birthday to date and I could not wipe the smile off my face all day long.

The next day, we went to Penney's for some Irish shopping (obvs a necessary stop) checked out Trinity College and had a pint in O'Connells pub in honor of the O'Connells (Julianne's boyfriend and now a dear friend of mine.) We headed home for some pizza before going on a mini pub crawl in town to meet up with Eddie and a friend of his. We hit up two of our favorite bars, The Dawson Lounge and a craft beer place on Camden Street. We got to see a few "off-duty" rugby players (no pics unfortunately) and had a ton of fun.
 

Two of my favorite people in one pic

Saturday, Meg, Julianne and I hit up the first annual Christmas Market on Stephen's Green. While the stalls were a bit strange (i.e Acne Cream next to the Candy Shoppe, next to Mulled Wine and back braces) we enjoyed taking a look around, some food, and even picked up a few gifts. We grabbed some warm drinks and took a walk around Stephen's Green where we served as everyone's personal photographers. We even got to take a picture for a few players on the Georgia Rugby Team. YOLO.

   

We headed home ate some more food (obviously) and got ready for another night on the town. Our predrinks party was almost as fun as the actual night out. It was complete with a choreographed interpretive dance to Taylor Swift as a Thank You gift from Meg and Julianne, some Cava courtesy of my lovely boyfriend as well as cat ears, a magic wand and too many laughs to even begin to describe how much my stomach muscles hurt.

 

We then headed to a club in town, but chose a rickshaw as our preferred method of transportation, which may or may not have been one of our best decisions to date. We met up with Eddie and a bunch of his friends and had one of the best nights I've had in a while. We danced with trees, threatened the DJ if he didn't play Taylor Swift and made so many memories.

This weekend has been one of the best and I have all of the people who helped make it possible to thank. It was the exact taste of home I needed and all the fun I could have possibly wished for on my birthday and more. Julianne, thank you for flying over 3,000 miles just to shut me up about never being surprised and for being one of the best friends I could ever ever EVER ask for. I love you forever and miss you already. Meg, I love you and am so happy I'm part of the clique now ;).

Thank you to everyone for all of the birthday love and please know that I appreciate every single call, text, facebook picture, tweet, throwback pic, snapchat and surprise I was given. It means more to me than I could ever express in words and I still cannot wipe the smile from my face.

Sending all of my love,
Paige xx