For being such a last-minute day, my birthday sure turned out great. Just a couple days before the Big Day, I decided it might be fun to go traipsing through Washington, DC with some friends. It’d be a great chance to experiment with my new camera and get in some fun socializing. My friend Amber flew up from Louisiana for the weekend because she needed some help planning her wedding and she just happened to stay over for my birthday. So she, my good friend Steve, and I went out to lunch at Sweetwater (where else?), then we all piled in my car and off we went. I had a fabulous time, laughed quite a bit, and ended up with quite a few photos that make me smile. Want to check them out? I’ve organized them into smaller galleries so they’ll be easier to load, so here you go:
Gallery One
Gallery Two
Gallery Three
After we were done toolin’ around downtown, we all went back to my house for dinner, cake, and – my favorite part – presents. Since everyone’s been asking me what I got, here’s the list:
– Two of my friends surprised me with gifts from my Amazon Wishlist. Sujit got me a photography book about 1940’s movie publicity portraits, and today I received a book from Guan about 1960’s LP covers. Three cheers for Sujit and Guan – you guys rock!
– Stephen surprised me with a scale model kit of a Ferrari Enzo. Two guesses as to how big my smile was right then. I immediately pulled the car out of the box and put it together. Then, with all the maturity of my new age, I promptly played with it on the dining room table, going “vroom, vroom!” like a little kid at Christmas. Yup, pinnacle of maturity, that’s me. The cute little yellow Ferrari went perfectly with the decorations for the party – we went with red and black and got a scale model of a BMW Z8 for the centerpiece. It was such a turn-around from last year’s pink explosion.
– My parents got me a CD called “Rabbit Songs” by the band, Hem. If you haven’t heard of them, check them out. Now. Go. They’re amazing. It’s a little bluegrass, a little old style country, but free from any accent/twang. They have a few Mp3s up for download on their site, so click here to give ’em a listen. I first heard about them when my friend Leif sent me the song, “Stupid Mouth Shut.” The lyrics are so simple and yet so beautiful. Great stuff.
– I got several of the portrait books I wanted, but alas, Amazon screwed up the order my parents placed, so nothing arrived. Instead my Mom printed out the titles of the books and wrapped those up in gift boxes. So I can’t tell you if they’re any good yet, since they’re still lost somewhere at Amazon HQ. But I’m sure they’ll be lovely. 🙂
After all the eating and present unwrapping, we retired to the basement to watch Mystery Science Theater 3000. Ah, what fun, what fun. We laughed ourselves silly then called it a night. It was a fantabulous birthday and I can’t imagine how it could possibly have been any better. You know something? I have great friends. 🙂
If you liked “Rabbit Songs” you should give Hem’s second album “Eveningland” a listen as well. It was my favorite album of 2004, hands down. It’s gorgeous.
I’m glad to hear that you like Hem. I had the great pleasure of seeing them live with Beth Orton, who is also really good. Hem’s singer is a really nice, down-to-earth woman, and I enjoyed meeting her at the concession stand where I got her to autograph my Hem CD. 🙂
I need to pick up their new CD now, too.
Wow that sounds fun. You are lucky to have such cool friends 🙂
Heather,
Some constructive photo criticism –
You have a great eye, however, people are far more interesting to look at than things and places.
Just a suggestion :o)