My birthday is two days from now.

And to celebrate, Bashfulleigh flew to Houston from Burlington, Vermont to spend the weekend with me.

We did  not make it out of the airport parking garage before stopping to make photos.

We also stopped to make photos in the field behind a drugstore before getting on the freeway.

 

Last night we halved a buffalo burger with goat cheese at a mostly empty restaurant that overlooked a pond of snapping turtles, drank a margarita in the perfect 70 degree weather and laughed about a poster of a white girl in daisy dukes and a cowboy hat.

Today we took a Zumba class and ate breakfast at least twice before Brittany came to my house.

The three of us shared a plate of Mexican chips with lime, incredibly thin slices of prosciutto and fresh Castelvetrano olives (which are my favorite). There may have been a photo taken of Brittany's tongue.

I took a bath with (at one point) three people besides me in the bathroom at the same time.

There may have been a photo taken of my toes.

Then we drove to Galveston, ran for mere seconds in the freezing water, objectified a few strangers (including a surfer), petted an adorable three-legged dog, listened to the dirtiest hip-hop made (really), loudly sang the dirtiest hip-hop made, danced outside the car at a stop sign, asked a gentleman in a fancy sports jacket to take our photo, shuffled down an alley full of parrots, pipes and electrical cords, ate dark-chocolate covered espresso beans, ate milk chocolate truffles with caramel and sea salt, overheard a conversation in which this was said: "I never turn the light on when I go to the bathroom. I only use it in the dark," rode a small mechanical horse in a big room of mostly adults (luckily, because this horse ride was not G-rated), dodged the rain and a parking ticket and ran into a close friend of mine whom I hadn't seen in quite a while:

Brittany made this photo and posted it on Instagram

Mamady had his Djembe under his arm when we ran into him on the streets of downtown Galveston.

After introductions and hugs and minor catching-up and phone number exchanges, he sat down on his drum.

And I could not refuse dancing for such a lovely drummer.

 

Starting the birthday weekend in the best possible manner!