The birthday festivities officially kicked off this weekend. Brian asked that I keep Saturday free as he had a day of birthday treats planned. I resisted my natural inclination to go into detective mode and figure out exactly what he had planned, and instead just relaxed and enjoyed the surprise of it all. We spent the day at the Ritz-Carlton Spa. I started with an 80 minute massage and it was one of the best I’ve ever had. Fully relaxed I stumbled upstairs to the pool which is on the 17th floor and has amazing 360 views of the city. I juiced up on mimosas and spent the next several hours mincing around in my robe moving from the sun lounger to the pool to the hot tub to the sauna. Then in the evening we went for a fantastic dinner at Custom Shop which is one of my favourite Charlotte Restaurants. We shared a charcuterie plate, an heirloom tomato and buffalo mozzarella salad, spicy tuna meatballs, and duck confit and finished it off with brioche bread pudding and caramel ice cream. Food and company were pretty close to perfect and we probably should have called it a night, but instead we cabbed over to meet some friends at a bar.
Fast forward to Tuesday, I was returning to my office after a daily meeting and I noticed the lights were all out. The next thing I knew everyone was shouting, confetti was flying everywhere, and tiaras and badges were being pinned on me from every direction. The whole department had banded together to decorate my office and throw me a birthday party. I always make sure we have cards and cakes on people’s birthdays but they really took the celebration to another level. It made me feel really loved and really special.
I head to London tomorrow to kick off the UK leg of my birthday tour – expect Birthday post #2 later this week if I survive whatever my two debauched high school friends have planned on Saturday...
