My birthday weekend began with a trip to Alamosa with the speech team. While spending 7 hours on the bus wasn’t an ideal way to celebrate, we did kick some serious butt at the meet. On top of 35 awards including 7 first places (out of the 9 events we competed in), Alamosa’s coach decided to give out an award to the school with the most points overall. We won it by a landslide, much to the delight of the students.
I got home a little after 11 PM Saturday night and crashed. When I got up the next morning, I though I was going to be a little late for church but it turned out I was super-early for Stake Conference.
The afternoon was spent doing laundry, cooking meals for the week, and talking to friends and family members on the phone who called to wish me a happy birthday. Rachel, Ben, and the boys descended on my house to bring gifts, dinner, and a birthday pie:
Yum!
- An inflatable sword to use during the fencing scenes (bonus points if you start out with it in your left hand),
- Bubbles to blow when Buttercup jumps out the window,
- A bell to ring whenever there’s kissing (since it is a kissing book),
- An Alamo-exclusive souvenir pint glass with art depicting the tumble down the mountain side, and
- A signed copy of Elwes’ new book.
It was ridiculously fun. I’ve never seen it on the big screen (and, oh, the textiles! I did not appreciate the use of trim in those costumes when I watched that movie as a youngster), and I loved seeing it in a room full of fans. There were even people in costume.
Truly, my friends outdid themselves. Fara told me her first suggestion to the group was that we all go paint vaginas on dinner plates a la Judy Chicago (an excellent example of why I like Fara so much), but “that idea flatlined.” I assured her that this was absolutely perfect. It made my month that I got get together with such good friends to fan girl over Cary Elwes (and Mandy Patinkin and Wallace Shawn. Yes, he’s short, but he’s a writer, an Oxford alum, and a Fulbright teacher so he also = HAWT.)
This pretty much sums up how I feel about the entire occasion:
Master Class 