Celebrate you!

My birthday.  The day that I was born 28 years ago.  This day happend this past Tuesday (2 days ago) on May 7th.  Or, in other terms iy was cinco de mayo plus (try saying that in spanish - like plu-se) dos. 

This is the annual day in which I receive this happy little joyous statement: CELEBRATE YOU!  I am sure it is probably meant as a piecve of advice.  But think about it...  Celebrate me?  How strange, right?  When you choose to celbrate yourself, what do you do?  Perhaps this is supposed to be a time of reflection, or maybe disappointment at the lack of self-celebrating things that you have done in the past year?  Or maybe, you shouldn't think about it too hard and just celebrate. 

Google even celebrated me! I find that both exciting and creepy.  How does it know???

I think that I probably do this much more often than once a year (celebrate me).  I probably do it every other Thursday when I get my paycheck and head to the mall.  Maybe that isn't celebrating really, but that is what I tell myself.  I get a little self present and the reason for which is completely made-up and different every time. 

So, this year in celebration of me, I decided it would be more than spectacular to celebrate my love of sweets.

Okay, so I have to admit that I actually began my self-celebration the night before my birthday.  Kind of like a birthday-eve when I stumbeled upon some delicious little cookies at the best grocery store in the world - The Fresh Market.  Okay, fine.  I went there to get cookies.

They were the tiny melt-away kind covered in powered sugar and lemon flavored.  It was pretty much impossible to pass these up, especially since I had been eyeing these little bites of heaven for the past 3 weeks.  So, into the basket they went and into my mouth as soon as I got in the car!  And since my roommate is so kind as to let me eat every single sweet thing and piece of junk food in the whole house, I didn't hesitate to each as many and as fast as possible before heading to bed.  But oh no, I didn't finish the whole container all at once. 

On the morning of my big celebrate myself day, I just so happened to sleep in a tiny bit.  And by tiny, I mean 3 extra hours.  Woah!  It was amazing.

I finished the rest of the cookies by the time that I was out the door for work, and probably got in the car with a few in my mouth. 

Before I go on about the rest of my sugar consumption on my birthday, I have to say that my friends really are absolutely fantastic.  I didn't have to tell them that my birthday challenge to myself was to consume as many sweets as possible on my birthday.

I walked into the ORB building minutes before rounds (now you see why I picked Orb, the horse of the Derby?!),  I was immediately greeted by delicious donuts.  Now, let me tell you, donuts are my #1 favorite of everything!  Fried bread, sugar and icing - yumo!  Who can pass that up?  So, without hesitation, I grabbed a donut, my computer and headed to rounds.

After a record time of 10 minutes on rounds, my wonderful CICU team showed me into the room of cupcakes.  And these, in case you can't tell by the picture, were the biggest, brightest and most irresistible looking cupcakes in the history of Cincinnati cupcakes.  It was almost as if the team could read my mind - they immediately cut each cupcake into 4 pieces for everyone to have a sampling of everything!  That is always the best idea because what if, just imagine this, that someone found the ultimate winner and you grabbed for the mediocre, yet still good one?  No need to worry about that, a jealous cupcake fight was avoided at first pass.  I didn't hesitate to dive right in, eating though phone calls.  And they were as yummy as they look.  GiGi's cupcakes, I award you.  You should check it out - they have different flavors everyday!

So, by 10 am I had consumed probably 24 mini melt-away lemon cookies, a donut and a cupcake.  And don't you worry, as the birthday girl, I was awarded one whole intact GiGi carrot cake cupcake after the mini party to save for later.

I headed back to my office a little later, only to be greeted by my friends, the smell of chocolate along, and  the embarrassing happy birthday song.  Do you want to guess what it was this time?  Don't look below, but really, there is no need to guess... I can't hide the secret.  It was a chocolate cake with the chocolate fluffy frosting (or moose, I obviously don't know how to spell it - but I mean the frosting, not the animal) in all layers.  Ashley, roommate, you really do know what I love and thank you!

By this time, I so far past a sugar coma, I was actually addicted and just couldn't stop.  I couldn't even stop long enough to document the intact cake before myself and a few others dove right in. 

After a mid-day break to do actual work, I resumed the absolute out-of-control sugarfest.  GiGi was just screaming my name, hangining out on my desk.  So, there the cupcake went before I even knew it.  I must have attacked it with a spoon as I looked up to find cake crumbs were all over the place.  A real-live cupcake battled happened on my desk and I won!  Bam, treat #4 gone.  Another delightful treat!

I can actually say that I have never had enough sugar, and I also can say that I may never have consumed quite as many grams of sugar as I did on my birthday.  Actually, that may not be true, but regardless, I achieved my goal.  I was absolutely full.  Bre had to carry away the remaining cake to save for the next day, while I headed home to prepare for my next year of life being 28. 

Winston and Hunley helped me celebrate before dinner and Andrea prepared for my next day of endless treats. My 36 hour sugar consumption has turned into about a fifty-something hour ordeal, and I am now continuing to work on these guys (a belated-birthday treat):

The reason that I do not have a favorite dessert?  Duh, because I love all of them...

Unit next year's sugar eating contest and celebration of me and the existance of cake... let the training continue!  And as I accept this award for consuming the huge-est amount of sugar ever (or for celebrating myself), I want to first thank my firends for knowing what I love and making my special day a blast. 

Sincerely,

Ashley