39!

 

I love my birthday. I do not love getting older. Nor do I love being on the verge of 40. But that's okay. Like Levent said when I turned 30 and was not okay with that, "You've had 30 years to prepare for it." And he's still correct. I've had 39 years to adjust to the idea of being 39 and being almost 40. It still seems weird though. Honestly, every year I get a year older always feels strange despite us all knowing that this is how life works. Still weird though. I think I feel about 32. But surprise! I am 39.

My birthday was on a Sunday this year, which meant I could celebrate my birthday all weekend long. And because I have so much vacation time, I decided to make a 4 day weekend out of it and took Friday and Monday off in honor of it. I was very extra this year, which I am not always. Although I do believe in taking the day off if my birthday happens to fall on a week day. But I think that is just common sense (if you have the vacation time). Who wants to work on their birthday anyway? Not me that's for sure.

Here's all the things I did to celebrate:

1. Friday

My birthday weekend also so happened to be the annual Columbus Arts Festival downtown by the river. I love this event and have gone every year since we moved here. So on Friday, I made my way downtown in the morning. But since I was close, I decided to stop at Callin' Your Bluff coffee first. This is a viral pop-up coffee shop that is so insanely busy on the weekends. (They are only open Fri-Sun). But since it was Friday, the line wasn't too long. I was able to try their strawberry matcha, at long last. (It was delicious). 

I then spent the rest of the morning wandering around the arts festival, looking at all the booths featuring incredible artists from all around the country, enjoyed a boozy slushy (even though it was barely noon lol) and had lunch from a food truck before heading back home on the bus. In the end, I bought two different paintings, one a print, one an original. I can't wait to hang them in my future house some day.

2. Saturday

On Saturday, Levent and I went to the Clintonville Farmer's Market, which is one of my favorite in the city. We got Turkish borek for breakfast (which we took home to heat up and eat) and a bunch of other goodies, including my flowers for my birthday.

In the afternoon, I had coffee/Matcha with my cousins Betha, which is always lovely. I am grateful for her friendship.

3. Sunday

Sunday was my actual birthday. So we did what I love doing on weekend mornings; We went to brunch! We hardly ever go out for breakfast, so it made it feel even more special. We tried Rooh, which is an Indian restaurant in the Short North neighborhood. They don't usually have brunch, but they have a "brunch pop up" currently and I was keen to try it. We got two savory dishes to share (avo toast and an egg in a croissant) and then something sweet as well (a mango croissant). To round out the meal, we both got iced chai, regular for me, dirty (aka with espresso) for Levent.

Afterwards, we popped into Prologue Book's new location. Visiting a bookstore for my birthday is a new tradition I started last year. I love it. I picked out this lovely ice cream cookbook.

And since we were in the area (like basically across the street), we went to Jeni's ice cream, not because we were hungry, but because I get a free ice cream scoop on my birthday! And it was unlikely that I would go another time. I thought it was just a literal scoop. But surprise! It was this. (This is maybe the first time I did not eat all my ice cream).

Before we headed back home, we walked around the park briefly. (The sun wasn't out, but it was pretty humid. So it was a short walk).

In the afternoon, we walked the dogs briefly (we were watching my mother-in-law's dog Sienna). I chatted with a few of my family members and made us some limoncello spritz.

That night, we got Hound dog pizza for supper, which is my favorite pizza in the city, watched a rom com, and then later had butter pecan turtle ice cream pie from Gaerter's for dessert. 

It was a lovely day.

4. Monday

Monday was my recovery day. Lol. I didn't really anything besides relax, which was definitely needed after doing a ton of things over the weekend. I actually took no photos on Monday, which is how you know I really didn't do a whole lot.

5. Bonus day: Wednesday

And there's more! We have family dinner with the Miller's every week and the following Wednesday was my birthday dinner with the fam. Shirley made delicious Turkish food and Brendan made an ice cream cake.

And that's how I celebrated this year! Cheers to being 39! (It's fine).