One Great Barfday

I used to have one of those singing Beatles Birthday! hamsters that I carried around with me on my birthday.  It's been years since I lost the Ringo Rodent, but I still hear that song in my head every single birthday.  At 4:30 this morning, on my 25th birthday, I hummed it to myself on my way to drop a friend at the airport.


3 hours later, I hummed the song to myself as I was knee deep in profusely vomiting dogs.  It just so happens that ECAD dogs contracted a 24-hour stomach bug that spread like wildfire through the kennel and had them puking their guts (and bile, kibble, etc) out approximately every 30 minutes.  Every 30 minutes is perhaps a bit worrisome and burdensome if it's your one pet dog.  Heck, even if it's your two pet dogs.  Unfortunately, 26 dogs puking every 30 minutes is slightly more than I had bargained for.  It's ok, though, I hummed "today is your birthday" on my way to the vets office (both times).  And then on my way to deliver medicine to dogs that had gone to volunteer homes.  And then on my way to CVS to buy Pedialyte.  It's all ok because despite the chaos and vomit and worry and misery of cleaning dogs, cleaning crates, cleaning cars, cleaning myself, I still had a pretty fabulous birthday.

Amidst the madness, my colleagues took a few minutes to get me a birthday cake and even to light a candle.  Adam decorated our cottage with balloons, got me a carb-crazy dinner (which I ate after showering and putting on my pajamas), and bought me at 64-gig iPhone 4S!!!  I got lots of phone calls from loved ones and some very funny voicemails.  I felt loved and appreciated and like today really was my day despite everything else.

I'm 25 and I'm happy and I'm healthy and I'm lucky to have such wonderful, loving, caring, compassionate, generous people in my life. I'm tucked in my bed eating birthday cake.  What more could a girl ask for?

Here I am indulging in my birthday carbs and looking clean and happy!