33

So I turned 33 this month and I’m still in shock that I’m the big 33. Not that 33 is a landmark birthday or anything but growing up it was one of my favorite numbers because of Atlanta Braves baseball pitcher, Steve Avery (this was before baseball got lame). So when I was growing up I always wondering what life would be like at 33—where I would be, what I would be doing, if I would be married, blah blah blah.

And now that I’ve been 33 for a few weeks, I can confidently say that it feels the same. For all you younger folk out there, the 30’s really aren’t a huge deal. I feel more sure of myself than I did in my 20’s however I haven’t had any Dali Lama like epiphanies that make 30-something, something that I thought it was going to be. I thought by now I would have things figured out—you know, what I want to do career wise, be financially sound and all in all just be. But none of that really has happened yet so I’m patiently waiting still. Mentally I still feel like I did in my 20’s (although now I think more and more about retirement, 401K, health insurance and other things I never worried about). Physically-not sure much as I felt in my 20’s, I feel like I wake up every day and at least something on me hurts. While I’m trying to work on myself, I’m just accepting that as a fact for now.

I kicked off my 33rd birthday to a wonderful start by walking into my boyfriends place the night before to see these beautiful flowers and a sweet card. I had my hands full with bags and Lincoln and just finished a horrible day. I wanted to just sit, have quiet and not think about my day so when I saw these sitting there, it threw me off guard completely. He was at work so he didn’t get to see my reaction but there were some tears coming on because I was so shocked that he got my flowers—I never get flowers. It was a sweet gesture that still makes me smile.

Then my birthday morning the good times kept rolling thanks to my free birthday drink from Starbucks. Raspberry soy latte sprinkled with chocolate? Don’t mind if I do!

Then when I got to work saw a pan of mint chocolate cupcakes made by my coworkers daughter waiting for me. My coworkers daughter is in high school and already an experienced baker (which I’m a little envious of since a baker I am not) and she comes in every other week telling me what kind of cupcakes her daughter made that weekend. I joked around once telling her my birthday was in December and that I love mint and chocolate and to make it happen. I was kidding (60% kidding) so I was completely surprised when I saw this sitting on my desk. There were little chocolate chips mixed in with the frosting which made these even more delectable than I imagined. Even after pawning some off on my coworkers (because I didn’t want to be that girl eating a pan of cupcakes by herself on her birthday), there was still a good bit left that I ended up enjoying for days after.

Along with flowers, coffee and cupcakes, I took in the gorgeous sights of Colorado on my walk during my break.

As much as I love my daily works I fit in at work,I didn’t want to do my normal walking routine or sit at my desk eating leftovers so I treated myself to lunch at Rice Bistro. I’ve been there a few times before but never have been solo. They have a decent lunch crowd so I made my way to the sushi bar where no one else was. I love sitting at the sushi bar because even though you’re sitting right in front of the chefs, you have you peace, quiet and a little privacy, Plus the service tends to be better than when you have a server and this held true at Rice Bistro. The chefs were super chatty and asked me how my day was going and I told them it was going well, it was my birthday so I wanted to have a nice lunch and I was ready for some sushi. They have sushi lunch specials but then I saw a jalapeno beef bento box on special for $11 including sushi and soup. As I love variety and anything involving jalapenos, this sounded quite enticing and when it came out, knew that I made the right choice!

The service was quick and food came out quickly as well and it was fun chatting with the sushi chefs. We talked about the boyfriend, who is Taiwanese, which led into a conversation about the Mandarin language. He speaks it fluently as well as his parents so when I was with them in Texas, didn’t understand anything at all. It’s not like Spanish where you can pick up on a word or two and so far I only know how to say a few words—Friday, Saturday and the number 1-5. So if this is going to continue with him, I’m convinced I need to Rosetta Stone myself or just move to the homeland. The former seems much more reasonable and do-able. The chefs tried to teach me words but I didn’t fly and soon it was time to go back to work. I got up, said thank you and they insisted I sit down and not leave. I asked why and they said they have a surprise for me which I groaned in response, thinking they were going to sing happy birthday to me. Which wouldn’t be such a horrible thing if I weren’t sitting there by myself because something about that seems a little pathetic (even as much as I love doing things solo). But sing they did not! They gave me something much better-a special sushi roll called the Cherry Blossom, which isn’t on the menu but they will make it if you ask for it.

Holy ballsack. This was amazing and even though I never thought one piece of sushi could be extraordinary, the Cherry Blossom roll may prove me wrong. It’s crab meat wrapped in salmon and avocado smothered in a dynamite and Sriracha sauce topped in roe. The salmon melted in my mouth just like butter-I’ve never had a piece of sushi do that before! I’m pretty sure I was mouthgasming right there by myself at the sushi bar but I didn’t care because it was definitely one of the top three best sushi rolls I’ve had in my life. If you live in the Denver area, do yourself a favor and order the Cherry Blossom roll at Rice Bistro—you will thank me.

And because apparently I’m looking to pull a Jeremy Piven and get mercury poisoning, we went out for sushi for dinner.  We made the mistake of going to East Moon Asian Bistro and Sushi and not a mistake because I got sick or anything, although I would be more forgiving of this place if that were the case.  The experience there completely ruined my birthday and I’m just going to act like we never went there in the first place.

Walking into this place you’re completely taken off guard because the décor doesn’t match the strip mall location that it’s in. It’s modern, trendy and just out of place. There was no host to greet us and she finally came over to seat us. We were greeted a few minutes after by our server who seemed out of it and like she didn’t know what was going on. We ordered the chicken lettuce wrap appetizer, a salad and wine. She brought out the wraps first, which lacked flavor along with coming with measly looking pieces of iceberg and when I asked her if I could get my glass of wine she looked confused.

WTH is up with homegirl slice? So I saw her go to the bar, talk with one of the other servers and I looked away and then the glass was to me a couple of minutes later. I was playing it cheap by getting the house red blend which tasted like bathwater! If I didn’t know better, I would have thought that Miss clueless had poured a few different wines into one since it was a blend. I didn’t even finish the glass because it was that bad and I think that was the first time in my life I didn’t finish a glass of wine which is just depressing. Bu what makes the whole thing even sadder is that the sushi rocked! We had the Fire roll and Never Try Never roll (still confused by that name) both were completely different flavors and even though the Never Try Never roll was on the sweeter side for which I usually choose for sushi, it was great. I just wanted to get out of there as soon as possible and get on with my birthday which was just kind of tainted thanks to our experience there.

Opening my gift from my bff, Neyal, made the night a little better though. She obviously knows me well because this totebag screams me!

But sushi redemption was made a few nights later at my beloved Sushi Train! A big group of us got together for my birthday including friends who came up from Colorado Springs, Diana and husband, Lena, Lynne’s husband (since Lynne was having the real thing in Japan at the time), my cousin and husband, boyfriend and one of his friends. Sushi Train is bomb because it’s $25 all you can eat so if there’s something you want to try you can without any abandon because it’s all the same price.

It was a night of friends, food, drinks and fun and it was absolutely perfect. It was great to be around the ones I love, plus getting treated to free sake bombs by the chefs didn’t hurt either. However what did hurt was eating so much that I could barely roll over in bed that night thanks to the sushi baby sitting in my tummy. Totally worth it though–bring it on, 33!