I am now thirty years old. It feels weird most of the time – I still think like I am in my twenties, maybe 28. While I feel that way, I am grateful for being at this point in my life (whoa, hello early thirties), and simply ecstatic with how I celebrated this milestone.
I planned to just have pansit or carbonara and cake for my birthday. I intended to prepare one dish, demand a cake from Mon, share the food with our housemates, and have a simple celebration at home. Two additional boxes of pizza would already be a treat. God must have wanted me to have a big time birthday and be reminded that I have a lot of reason to celebrate, because I got more than what I wanted.
It started with Tubs calling their friends for a get together at our place. While it was not primarily my celebration, it was a good enough reason for me to feel blessed. I welcomed the 15th of June with Mon's friends over nilagang baka, adobo, chicken (courtesy of Lloyd and Grace), Jose Cuervo, X.O. and pusoy. Good time.
I want a cake for my birthday, so I dearly requested Mon to buy me one. Tubs already planned to cook paksiw, so I decided to cook pansit to complement the meal – just a simple lunch.
My cake request and simple lunch turned to a party meal. My dear hubby made it special. I did not even have to cook. The men in the house did all the kitchen work: Mon for oven-baked ribs, Tubs for paksiw, Gian for pansit, and Jic for crispy ulo. Since we already had too much food for the people in the house, we invited a few friends who could come over for late lunch. Sarah, Harold and a friend became my instant guests, with a cake in tow. I ended up having two cakes; sweet.
We attended mass in the afternoon, and I thought that was a nice way to end the day's celebration. Then we ran into Mon and Jic's brod, and invited him for dinner and videoke. It became an extended celebration as I also said hello to my 30 years and a day of life.
It has been a very lovely day. I felt so loved, grateful and blessed. My heart was overflowing with joy that I posted a lengthy thank you message in Facebook, which is something I very rarely do.
During the mass, I remember being inspired, though I cannot recall now what exactly was the message. All I can remember is that I felt encouraged about my life. I wanted to inspire other people and live my life in God's service by spreading His love. That was the ultimate reason why I started this blog, even if it took me a couple of weeks to finally put this up. My life is not perfect; but it's a wonderful life worth celebrating.
