On this day...

I was born. At 1:48 p.m. at St. Mary's hospital (native of a native). 26 years ago (lie). That my 26th birthday won't involve bawling in the hallway of a hotel after a wedding, like my 25th (lie), is a-okay with me.

That whole "I hate the 4th weekend" thing? It's a direct result of having a holiday weekend birthday wherein no one is around. This is what I tell myself. Chances that no one would likely give a fuck anyway and that birthdays are not magical days where you get to be a fairy princess who is a size six and married to Brooks Laich (man of my dreams) while riding through an enchanted forest on a paint pony, incapable of getting hangovers? High. (This, by the way, describes my ideal birthday.)

But! This year feels different. Because my beloved friends share a wedding anniversary with my birthday now, I checked in with them and discovered they were celebrating on the 3rd, but free on the 2nd. So I did a BBQ at my house yesterday and it was AWESOME. First of all: my peeps are straight amazing. Smart, funny, ridiculous. A perfect blend of highly educated and street smart. They spent a vast majority of the night working their way through a bottle of Jameson, making fart jokes and fake kung fu fighting on my back deck. They also took my dad's camera when he left it lying around and took pictures of their junk. It was like we were legally drunk 13 year olds. And it was fucking fun.

Later on my dad yelled at my bestie who ALWAYS gets mad at me for having too much random knowledge in my head, as I discussed the psychology of dogs. He got all finger pointy and my dad said, "You point your finger at her again, I'm going to break it off and feed it to Maverick!" Daddy's girl forrreeevverr. (He also rallied from his own previous hangover to clean up his house and make us ribs.) But that same bestie, who knows that my drinking speed is ON gave me a birthday card that on the outside says "Celebrating your birthday? Present the enclosed car to any bartender for your FREE BIRTHDAY DRINK!" Inside? A coupon that says "Excuse me, may I please have a glass of water?" This after getting us drunk on Happy Brooks Re-Signing with Washington Day! (Not a real thing, just us managing to go out on a Tuesday and get drunk. As good a reason as any.) He's all, "I'm ready to leave and here comes Lisa with two more drinks! Geeezzusss." *shrug* What can I say? I forgive him for getting mad at me for knowing stuff.

We ate a ton of good food (ribs, caesar salad, potato salad, chips and guacamole), drank a ton of beer and were all merry and fun for several hours. It rocked. The amount of bottles stacked on the counter at the end of the night made this place look like a frat house. I'm proud of us.

So basically I get to spend my actual birthday hungover. Which is alright. It's sunny here, I don't have to get really dressed and am gonna go fall asleep in a chair on the back deck in the sun. Except I don't have any Dr Pepper. It would take a four block walk to get some. I'm not moving. And then tonight I am going to the ever cheesy Tonga room for a mai tai and dinner with my mom and stepdad.

All that said, this is off to a pretty awesome start and despite no one being around, I got plenty of texts and tweets and the ever important facebook messages. (You don't know you're loved until it's declared on Facebook.)

Here's to 26 (lie) being the best year ever!

Update: My dad went to the store and got me Dr Pepper. Honestly? Best birthday present. I'm gonna be giving it up on Tuesday in an effort to actually honest to god lose weight so I can be that ever elusive size six (never gonna happen). This is gonna be super difficult. I love this stuff. It is my crack. But for now? Imma drink it all.