Excellent Birthday!

Yesterday I turned 25! And it was a great day.

Despite having my final exam yesterday morning, which was WAY too long and had some confusing questions and was in general pretty tough, it was a nice day. Tim woke me up just after midnight to sing me Happy Birthday, which was really cute and sweet and made me laugh. :P

I got up at 6 am to do some last minute studying, but once Tim got up around 7:15 I couldn't study anymore, because I was too excited! He sang me happy birthday (AGAIN! so fun) and then gave me a card. He had me completely fooled, because I didn't think he'd had the chance to get me anything yet. So you can imagine my surprise when I discovered tickets to Phantom of the Opera taped inside the card!!! They were for 2pm, so basically as soon as I finished my exam, we were headed to Toronto to enjoy the show. Needless to say, after he gave me the card, there was NO WAY I could study anymore, I was bursting. :P

So we ate breakfast and planned for the day until it was time to leave for my exam, and then off we went. Tim dropped me off at school, and I made my best attempt at concentrating while I wrote the exam....like I said before, it was WAY too long! My hand was hurting by the end of it!

We got to Toronto in good time and made our way to the Princess of Wales theatre for the show. Our seats were in the "dress circle" - so not orchestra seats, but still really good ones! The show was amazing....I had a hard time controlling myself from singing along with all the songs. I had seen the movie, and listened to the soundtrack many times, but nothing beats seeing a play in the theatre. It evokes such emotion, such joy, being in the theatre is beautiful. I really had a wonderful time! We even had some haagen dazs ice cream during the intermission (very yummy).

Then Tim and I went to dinner at a place called "Fred's not here". I don't think Fred was present, and it was a neat little restaurant serving mostly smokehouse/steakhouse meals. Lots of meat, not as many other options. I think if I'd known beforehand, I might have chosen another restaurant, just because I like to have lots of options, and I felt somewhat limited in what I could order. I mean, I like meat, but it's nice to have some veggies or other yummy tidbits to accompany your meal.

Nonetheless, dinner was great, I had mushroom ravioli and salad and Tim had duck prepared 2 different ways. We also had some coconut shrimp as an appetiser. Everything was very good, and we had a great time chatting about the play and enjoying the evening. I think the only thing that was missing was a big group of waiters coming over to sing happy birthday, but what can I say, not all restaurants do that kind of thing. :P Overall, it was really fun!

We came back to Hamilton, and much to my excitement there was a notice in the mail for a package!! So we went and picked it up from the post office, and sure enough, it was a present FOR ME!!! :D Tim's parents had sent me a gift in the mail, which I was super excited to open, and Tim made me wait until we got back to the apartment before I could open it! The anticipation was HUGE.

They got me a digital camera!!! A really cool one, one I've been wanting for a while, that Tim and I had been talking about getting because his little camera is on its last legs and so I needed a little camera to use. The camera they got me is the Canon Digital Elph SD 600 - a fun little camera that I am enjoying learning how to use. I got to take it out with me, because later that evening I went over to Anna and Leana's place for a post-final party with classmates. :)

The gang at the party (I'm using my new camera to take this!!!) :)

And they had cake for me! And sang me happy birthday! It was so fun. I think it made the day just about perfect. We had a fabulous time laughing, playing goofy games and some of us even stuck around till 2 am talking about everything and anything.

Leana with the super-chocolatey-uber-yummy cake that they got for me!

It was a wonderful day. :) Probably the only thing missing was my loved ones who live far away; it would have been nice to see all of my family, but I know your thoughts and prayers were with me. It was a fun day. A good day. And now I'm a year older.