My Birthday! (or Laundry, A Bike Ride, and Dinner!)

My actual birthday was a pretty awesome day! It didn’t start off so awesome, though. Last week the dryer where I live was broken. It got fixed, but at some point during the week both the washer and dryer broke. I had no idea until I tried to do laundry on Sunday morning. So at 7:30am I put all my dirty clothes in my car and went back to the laundromat. It costs almost 4 times what it costs at my place to do laundry, but I needed clean clothes! Fortunately, I got a couple of birthday phone calls while I was there so that helped to pass the time.

After I got home with my clean clothes, it was off to the first part of my birthday adventure. CicLAvia is an event in LA where they shut down a major street (or several major streets) to non-motorized traffic only. So you can bike ride, skate, or walk without fear of being hit by a car. CicLAvia not only happened to be on my birthday this year, the street that was shut down was only blocks from my house! So even though I don’t ride my bike in traffic, I rode the few blocks in traffic to get to the street that was closed down to cars.

Bike Ride

I was hoping that I’d be able to ride with a couple of friends, but it was too difficult trying to coordinate schedules (and some friends were also still searching for bikes that they could rent). So I went off on my own for a nice bike ride.

I don’t get to ride my bike that often. Like I said, I don’t ride where there is traffic (I’m a good bike rider, but cars intimate me) and it’s not fun to have to get my bike into my car. So I know that I could ride more often if it was more convenient. There may be a new bike ride near my house in a year or two, but until then I have limited biking practice.

When I do go out on my bike, it’s usually a pretty short ride of 2 or 3 miles (getting the bike in and out of my car takes up so much time). But for this ride I decided to just ride until I started to feel a bit tired and then turn around. I forgot to turn on a tracking app on my phone when I started my ride, so I didn’t get my mileage count until I got home and could map it out.

Birthday Bike Ride

That’s the farthest I’ve ridden on my bike since I got it! My legs definitely felt it after the ride was done. But I was able to relax at home before the second part of my birthday.

I didn’t want to do a big party for my birthday because they are too stressful to organize. But I did want something different from going to a bar. So I invited a bunch of people to come out to dinner, and we had a nice little group there!

Birthday Dinner

Yes, my birthday dinner was 6 girls and 1 guy, but I don’t think he was complaining. It was a really fun dinner with lots of great conversation. And I had some really delicious food!

Food

After dinner, my friends had set it up for the waiter to bring a slice of cake with a candle in it. But we were all so full from our food that between all of us we maybe ate 1/10th of the cake slice.

Between my birthday outings, the phone calls I got, the Facebook notes, and the gifts that friends and family gave me; I had a really amazing birthday. I know that I say that every year, but it’s so true. My birthday was pretty much perfect (I wish the laundry wasn’t broken) and I have no idea on how to top it next year!

But even though the calendar says my birthday is done, I’m not done celebrating quite yet!