Happy birthday to me…

December 5 Did you have a night out with friends or a loved one that rocked your world? Who was there? What was the highlight of the night?

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My birthday was two weeks after I lost my job, so I was still dealing with a lot of emotions (i.e. spending my days in bed watching the entire “Mad Men” series, wondering if I’d have to live in a van by the river, being referred for my first freelance position, deciding to travel for five weeks…)

Birthdays are a pretty good excuse to get friends together to begin with, but my recent lay off was icing on the (birthday) cake. Friends from college and work all came out to my neighborhood (this rarely happens. another birthday perk) for an evening at the new beer garden.

Even though I sweat a lot and ran into my landlord (”Do your parents know you’re out tonight?” “Umm, yeah…”), it was one of those perfect moments — a wonderful summer evening with people you adore, when you are completely happy and wouldn’t want to be anywhere else (even if that place had air conditioning). The night was made even more delightful when my former coworkers brought treats, including pans of homemade brownies. And even though it was a beer garden, I was able to enjoy sangria (I did, however, try some beer, though one was mixed with lemonade and the other was raspberry flavored).