Kate's Perfect Day

I really love birthdays...

A birthday is such a special occasion for celebrating the people you love. Not to mention, birthdays are a wonderful excuse to dream up delightfully weird-but-perfect gifts. I'm a big fan of oddball gifting. This past Christmas, I got my grandmother a terracotta pomegranate soaked in perfume from a perfumery that has been around since the 1200s(!), a gift of which I'm particularly proud. Last year, two of my friends sent me a porch goose with zero forewarning—how odd and perfect! Her name is Dolly and she now holds court in my living room. 

The question of how I was going to celebrate my birthday plagued me for weeks leading up to the date itself this year. None of my ideas felt totally right....even a simple bowling party would require a pretty sizable investment from my friends in time, energy, and money, and I don't want anyone to feel obligated to spend any of those things just to hang out with me.

I also find that putting a lot of pressure on one particular event as the entire celebration inevitably leaves a large margin for disappointment when people can't make it or the event doesn't go off exactly as planned.

So! I came up with Kate's Perfect Day. 

The idea was so simple that I couldn't believe I'd never thought of it before. I would plan a loose itinerary for my idea of the perfect day, and then invite my friends to join any part of it they'd like! That way, people could join for whatever activity floats their boat without obligation and if for some reason nobody else were able to make it, I'd still spend the day doing things that bring me joy. Win-win! 

I made up a little invite-itinerary to post on social media and text to people, and crossed my fingers that my friends would be willing to come along. And let me tell you, it was, indeed, the perfect day. 

I had different configurations of friends join me for a morning walk around Belle Isle, a coffee stop at my favorite local shop, a mini shopping spree at my favorite Richmond bookstore, and then at our home for pizza + cake! I felt like I got to spend some real quality time with everyone that showed up, and it was a delight to see people I love meeting and hitting it off with other people I love.

Quick highlights from a phenomenal day: 

• I always eat cake for breakfast on my birthday, and Mary surprised me with a delicious (& ginormous) Publix cake, replete with frosting balloons. Yum! 
• It absolutely poured buckets as we headed towards the bookstore, and the lot of us arrived soaking wet and (at least I was) grinning ear to ear.
• The rain held off for our nature walk + our entire (outside) coffee hang! Felt like a gift for sure.
• One of my friends wrote, "I hope your day is lush and full of love" on their card and I thought lush was such a beautiful word choice; I keep hearing the phrase ringing in my ears.
• I walked away from the bookstore with nine new books for my already-crammed shelves. There's just something so special about a bookstore, and it was my own brand of heaven to walk around running my fingers across the spines and look up to see Erin leafing through a small paperback, or round a corner and stumble upon Mary at home in the science section. 

My entrance into year 26 was pretty much perfect, and I can't think of a better way to set up a brand new (lush) year filled with adventure, reading, cats, cake, nature walks, and friends.