Thanks! The shoes were like $12 from Payless! Definitely worth it - I get compliments on them on style boards and in person, all the time.
The dress is officially the hoochie-est thing I currently own. Lol I feel pretty fabulous in it, and I get a lot of double-takes from guys when I wear it. That said, I don't have many places to wear it to really!
To give more detail on my day yesterday, I woke up next to DarkKnight, and he made me a delicious French toast & bacon breakfast. Unfortunately, there was a miscommunication, because I wanted 4 triangles, and he served me 4 entire slices! The blueberries were amazing, and the toast itself was cooked to perfection. So of course, I ate all 4 slices.
I groaned on the couch for quite a while afterward, hating the fact that I have no self control. We watched an episode of Black Mirror together, and then I went downstairs to shower & dress. PunkRock had other ideas, and we had some birthday sex after some talking and snuggling.
DarkKnight was working on my cake - every year, he makes me a carrot cake from scratch, so PunkRock and I went out to run some errands. We had lunch at 5 Guys, and at Home Depot he bought some supplies for my daughter's new apartment. (He is going over there on Monday to fix up her screens and hang some blinds.) We oohed and ahhhed over the dinosaur skeleton lawn ornaments, and solidified my determination to buy the Triceratops next month.
We also hit Sam's Club, because PunkRock needed some more nicotine gum - he's down to the 2 mg or mcg level (I forget which they use to measure the amount) but I am not sure how long it will take him to decrease further.
When we got back to the house, PunkRock and I watched a different episode of Black Mirror - the Playtest episode. Gah! He was unimpressed, but I think it's one of the better ones, honestly. As soon as it finished, SirGawain had arrived, and we all then left to go to dinner.
Y'all, I have been salivating all week over the thought of Mango Grill. Their Indian food is like, my favoritest thing ever. So, of course when we arrive, they have their buffet going. I hate their fucking buffet! I wanted to cry. Their chicken tikka masala is amazeballs off the menu, but on the buffet it seriously drops off the scale completely for me. So after asking the waitress upon entering, it's determined that even though they initially say we can order from the menu, their cook has actually left and that wouldn't be possible. So we left before being seated.
I was so seriously bummed, you guys. It seemed like a not-so-good omen.
After some discussion, we drove over to Nikko's, which is the Hibachi place in town. I was there two years ago with WarMan and PunkRock for my birthday, so that was mildly amusing. The food was excellent, but before it finally started being prepared, I was almost in tears! When we arrived, the hostess was no where in sight, and we stood around much too long waiting for her to appear. After she seated us, another party was seated next to us - which is both expected and totally fine - but then we were completely forgotten. We sat there for at least 10 minutes before a waitress appeared, looking aggravated - no one had told her that we were her table. Then, halfway through taking everyone's drink order, the floor manager interrupted her and asked if he could move us to the other side of the restaurant, because then we could get our food cooked quicker. Everyone was kinda like, what?
So we moved - all four of us and the other couple. As we got up, the waitress asked the manager if we were still going to be her table, and he told her "I hdont know." That was a bit disconcerting. The place we were seated had a family of 3 already there, being served the soup and salad course, but after dropping that food off, THAT waitress promptly ignored all of us. We sat there for another 15 minutes, wondering wtf was happening, before our waitress from the original table appeared and took our drink orders again.
I have yet to write reviews on either restaurant, but they are certainly going to get some shit from me.
When we got home, my kids had decorated the game room, and we ate cake as I opened presents. I got spoiled - a mother-daughter mani-pedi day, a big bucket of my favorite sea salt carmel gelato and a new set of Petri dishes for Pandemic (the ones I have already were labeled and used with the Legacy game we finished earlier this year). DarkKnight and PunkRock went in on a copy of Mansions of Madness 2nd edition for me, which is the game I have been freaking out over all year. I was so very excited to get this!
Overall, it was an amazing feeling to get presents.
That said, SirGawain didn't get me anything, which made me feel really unsettled. We had talked about my issues previously, so I am not sure why he showed up empty handed, but he did. I did some quick breathing/calming exercises when I realized there was nothing there from him, and all was well. I honestly feel I did an amazing job with my emotions and receiving gifts last night, especially with that situation popping up. I am not sure how to broach the topic without seeming like a gimme pig, so I am not sure what to do yet. I wish I had money left in the flex account, because some guidance from my therapist would be appreciated right now, but unfortunately I won't have any more visits until 2018.
Seriously though, it felt like I was staring at my ex-husband from across the table, and at first I thought I was going to leave, because I was so very confused. I stopped myself and tried to just ignore everything, and concentrate on breathing and focus on opening up Mansions of Madness to cover my distress.
After cake and presents we played Crappy Birthday, as we always do on birthdays, followed by 3 rounds of We Didn't Playtest This at All. Then my kids left, and I said goodnight to SirGawain.
I spent the rest of my birthday evening trying on outfits for today - our Pandemic Legacy friend (and PunkRock's co-worker) had his mother pass away a few days ago, so we are going to the funeral this morning.
After getting in bed and playing some Words with Friends with PunkRock for awhile, we had a conversation about him starting to date. This was a continuation of a discussion we had that morning, and it made me feel anxious. He clarified a couple of things, and I think we are both on the same page. Nothing has changed much from our last talk about this - which was like 2 years ago. All of my feelings on the topic are the same, and it seems so are PunkRock's. It remains a positive thing, but we both agree he needs to read More Than Two before heading off into the wild. �� We had finished several chapters way back when but then he decided he wanted to stay monogamous for a while longer and we stopped with it. Today I am going to talk to him about starting back up, reading this together. I am not at all sure what kind of timeline this will entail. I read quickly, but PunkRock takes more time with things.This will totally be on him to move forward-I am ready to go when he is.