My favorite holiday has always been birthdays. Not only mine but other peoples as well. It’s an entire day set aside to celebrate the people you love. Not that we need an occasion, but let’s face it, having one is always kind of nice. Since I was a youngin, I’ve been theming my parties. One of my first themes was magician. I was a little obsessed with sleight of hand at 13. I’ve done the 1980s a couple of times, any excuse for loud colors really. Hell, last years rainbow theme really pushed the color boundaries in all directions.  Once I themed a party Things you can Dip and we had a chocolate fountain and fondue cheese. It was one of the yummiest parties. This year I’ve taken things to a whole new level with, Harry Potter.  Let’s just say that I took something that could have been quite simple and ran with it in the most obnoxious way humanly possible.

What started as, “Let’s make Chocolate Frogs!” quickly turned into, “Let’s make Chocolate Frogs and their boxes and the Wizard Cards. Oh no, the chocolate will get all over the wizard cards we made, we have to laminate them. If we’re going to laminate them, they might as well be printed front and back….” “They make Muggles Against Humanity? We have to have it!” “Can we make 70 keys float?” “How do we make liquid gold?” Do you see where I’m going with this? One small idea turned into fifty large ideas (and fifty Chocolate Frogs). Having a small Honey Dukes corner has manifested into an entire Honey Dukes wall. ButterBeer morphed into Jello-shots as well and Polly Juice Potion, and Liquid Luck (which is super freaking cool by the way). I guess what I’m getting at here is, sometimes if you’re going to do something, you might as well go big or go home. Although the last few days, I’ve been feeling like going home, I know in the end I’ll be glad we stuck this out. And by “we” I mean every person I’ve fanangeled into helping me. Thanks by the way!

Those who know me well, know I’m not really a party person. As in, I rarely attend them. I don’t go out much at all really. I like to hang out with my friends. I enjoy going to concerts and events. But I don’t really do much of the bar scene (maybe it has something to do with owning one, once upon a time). So why birthdays? I don’t know exactly. I love celebrating the people I love. I think everyone deserves the most heartfelt well wishes on their birthday. Little fun surprises in life can turn an okay day into a grand one. It’s the little things in life, I’m telling you I swear by this statement

So, today is my birthday.

Today I feel happy. I’ve got some amazing students and co-workers. Friends and family who love me. A job I enjoy. Time enough to appreciate life and take little vacations. Plenty of glitter and color in my life to feel fancy. I’m going to dinner with my family this evening. I took tomorrow off work so I can finish getting ready for this weekend, where all things Harry Potter will explode into awesomeness. I can’t complain, life is pretty good. I hope every one of you who thinks Birthdays are “just another day” put’s that nonsense out of your head. Live it up a little. Who knows how many birthdays we get. Make every single one special.

LOVE YOU ALL

M