berfday

i'm 29 now, you guys. my birthday was on saturday and we went to aptos for the weekend with joe's parents and a few friends. there was something for everyone: capitola's endless candy selection for amy, bar-be-que for steve, push-ups contest for sean, stuff to throw for asheke... a cornucopia of activities and treats to delight one and all. and the icing on the cake? literally it was a rich and sweet creamcheese with little carrot decoratives that perfectly complimented the decadent, moist (sorry "moist"-haters) carrot cake. yum. but the figurative icing on the cake was the fireworks. man oh man, i love fireworks. about a year and a half ago, i realized i love baby carrots. i mean, i have always eaten a lot of them and i always enjoy them but i had sort of taken my enjoyment of them for granted. then, to quote joe biden, i had "what the catholics call an epiphany". i love baby carrots. about a year ago, i had the same revelation about fireworks. i just love them. i'll take this moment to thank miles and trip for the fireworks at our wedding. that kicked ass.

so did the fireworks on saturday night in aptos. wow. what a show. it was like the christian siriano of fireworks displays. they had all the faves, some i have never seen before and this ridiculously opulent finale where they lit up the cement ship and had a stream of sparking light shooting upwards with the whole arsenal of fireworks exploding out of the top like a fake pistol that shoots a bouquet of flowers. it was literally awesome.

amy was able to identify a number of common types of fireworks and, along with others of us, christen a few new ones:

sparklemania

dreadlock rasta
sea anemone insanity
fallen angel
dreadlock mania
party in the sky

they also had the fireworks that are shaped like stuff. there were 3-d planets, stars and hearts; which mostly looked like weird abstract hearts. one of them, however, was a perfect heart, aimed right at us that throbbed out of the sky and touched my heart. for reals. i felt love from the sky.

that experience was a manifestation about how i feel about fireworks. also, how i feel about family and friends so, thanks for being one of those. or a stranger i guess, this is the internet. and hello 29 years old. i am you now, we are one. let us begin.

p.s. dear people next door to us: sorry we kept yelling out the "names" of the fireworks throughout the entire show. that was probably kind of annoying. or *fingers crossed* funny?