I'm 28 Going on 78

I am so loved! I got tons of birthday wishes from co-workers, friends, and family. My supervisor and co-workers really made me feel special on Friday. My supervisor decorated my office. The VP of Finance took everyone in the department (there were 14 of us) out for my birthday lunch at Olive Garden. We took a two hour lunch and I enjoyed every minute of it. Even the part where everyone sang me happy birthday. Later in the afternoon, my supervisor called me out into the accounting area to teach one of the interns something about coding, which was just a ploy to get me out of my office. Everyone had gathered around the accounting area. She had an awesome cookie cake that said "Happy birthday Lauren" on it and gave me a card that everyone signed with their birthday wishes and another card with a gift card from Wharton-Smith. We spent another 45 minutes to an hour chatting about babies, potty training, pregnancy, and cats before returning back to work. Seriously, they went above and beyond to make me feel special on my birthday.

After work on Friday, I met Taylor, her boyfriend Kenny, and his best friend Trenton at The Thai Blossom Restaurant in Winter Garden. It was absolutely delicious! Kenny and Trenton have such a bromance that they ordered the exact same tea, the exact same entrée, and the exact same dessert. It was comical. I enjoyed catching up with Taylor and exploring winter garden after dinner. We all went back to Taylor and Kenny's hotel room where we played Poop, the card game Taylor got me for my birthday. Toilets were clogged and everyone had a crap load of fun. I also showed off the poo emoji socks, poo emoji coffee mug, and a book about "Mind Blowing Ways to Poop" that Taylor got me for my birthday.

Thanks to everyone that sent birthday wishes via technology like text, voice mail, or facebook.

I spent Saturday at Downtown Disney, nka, Disney Springs, which I think is a stupid name change so I still call it Downtown Disney. Kim and I hung out with Taylor, Kenny, and Trenton in the early afternoon before Kelly, Leigha, Mom, and Savanna arrived for our reservation at T-Rex. I was home and in bed by 8pm. The past 2 days had caught up to me and I was worn out.

It may have been something I ate, or it may have been Crohn's that caused me to visit the bathroom every 2-3 hours in the middle of the night. It's hard to be mad at shitting that often when my bowel movements were as lovely as they were. I think they were about as perfect as they could get. Still, it's hard to feel rested after waking up so frequently in the middle of night. I spent most of the day in bed on Sunday, but I did get up to see the movie, 13 Hours with Kim. I saw Lady Gaga sing the National Anthem for the Super Bowl and then I took a bubble bath. I'm trying to get my ass ready for my appointment at the end of the week, but it's not cooperating. I have a rash on my cheek, and a zit, at least I'm convincing myself it's not another abscess, down below, in between my crack and close to the problem hole. I think it hurts, but maybe I'm just feeling ghost pain. It's not really there, right?  I'm so anxious about Friday that it's ridiculous. I have bitten all of my nails. I don't want to go. I'm hoping they call to reschedule again, but time's running out.

It's My Birthday... Almost

My birthday celebration is already well underway. To those of you that have already sent me a birthday card, thank you for making me feel special for my birthday! I feel like you must really be on top of your game in life! Keep being awesome!

My friend, Veronica, sent me a blanket she crocheted herself because she knows how cold I always am! It's thick and wonderful and will keep me warm for years to come. I am in awe that she hand made it. It makes feel super special.

My birthday weekend will be non-stop celebrating with friends, family, and co-workers. I'm thankful to think that I'll have enough energy to keep up with all the plans and really enjoy everyone's company. Today my sister, Kim, mentioned that she's going to give me tickets for my birthday. Now, I've been giving really obvious hints that I would love to see Justin Bieber in concert. What can I say? I'm not a hater. So, I asked if she decided to go to the Bieber concert even though I know she loathes him. That's when Kelly opened her big mouth and said that whatever tickets Kim got me she was certain that I would think they are way better than Justin tickets. My mind drew a blank because I couldn't think of anything better. That's when Kim prompted me with a question:

Who's CD have you been playing in your car nonstop since October?

HALSEY!!!! She's going to be at the CFE Arena in July and Kim will be taking me! I must not be a very good fan since I didn't even know she was on tour. I consider myself a huge fan though. Seriously, I've obsessed with her music so much that I have not been keeping up with other music at all. When I heard her song "Castle" in the trailer for Huntsman, I freaked out in the theater as I whispered to Kim, "OMG, Halsey's song is in a movie trailer." I can't wait to see her perform live

UCF Graduation Planning

At the beginning of the week, I filed my ITG (intent to graduate) for the Spring of 2015!  I will be graduating from The University of Central Florida with my B.S.B.A. (Bachelor's of Science in Business Administration) in Finance. I'm not sure of the exact date and time yet, but I do know the College of Business commencement will be held sometime May 7th, 2015 to May 9th, 2015. Registration opens for my last class in the Spring Monday, November 24th.  I'm sure after I register for that final class it will sink in that I'm actually going to do this.  

I’ll get five graduation tickets for family and friends to attend my graduation ceremony, and I also plan on entering the lottery to get more tickets for my other fans. Taylor plans to come up from South Florida to attend, which I’m already excited for. Veronica is willing to fly from Austin, TX just to see and celebrate my graduation, and that means the world to me! My mom, dad and Kim get the dibs on the other three guaranteed tickets. I wish I had another guaranteed ticket for Brittany. Nonetheless, I’m going to enter the lottery to win graduation tickets for Brittany, Leigha, Kelly and my Uncle Len. It sucks because I’m not guaranteed those tickets. If Veronica can’t get off work to attend, I’m going to give her graduation ticket to Brittany.

I have huge tentative plans for celebrating this amazing achievement with anyone that wants to celebrate it with me. As soon as Sak Comedy releases its schedule for May 2015 I'm going to purchase a Slice of Life during their Duel of Fools Improv show Friday night on May 8^th, 2015. Once I get the Slice of Life reserved, I'll send out invites to all my family and friends to come enjoy the show to celebrate with me.  For the Slice of Life, I’ll have my family and friends fill out a questionnaire with gathered stories and information about me, and then the improvisers will make me the star of the show by reading what my family and friends wrote before they improvise a musical about my life.  

The fun doesn’t stop there. The next activities on my agenda are more difficult to plan because I won’t know which day my graduation will actually fall on until January. I’m going to invite my sisters and Brittany, Taylor and Veronica to celebrate with me at Magic Kingdom. I want to celebrate at the Magic Kingdom by making reservations at Cinderella’s Royal Table inside the castle for lunch and making reservations at the Be Our Guest Restaurant for dinner. The ideal day to celebrate at Magic Kingdom would be Saturday, May 9^th because Taylor and possibly Veronica will still be in town. However, my graduation ceremony might be that Saturday. In which case, we won’t be going to Magic Kingdom. The safest day to plan Magic Kingdom would be Sunday, May 10^th, but by that time Taylor and Veronica will be heading home later in the day on Sunday, so it wouldn’t be worth it for them. My tentative plan is to get a head count of who would be interested in going each day, and then I’ll make reservations when they become available the beginning of November for Saturday, May 9^th, and I’ll get one of my sisters to make reservations for Sunday, May 10^th. That way when I find out in January which day my graduation is going to be on, we can cancel one of the reservations since we’ll still have another reservation active.  I know it’s expensive, but with advance planning I can get discounted Disney tickets at UCF. Even so, I’ll understand if it’s too expensive for everyone to join. I’m hoping with advance notice it will allow adequate time for those that want to join to save up for it.