A pre-birthday surprise...

Ack, I didn't mean to be gone for so long! My boyfriend and my brother's girlfriend surprised my brother and me with a weekend in Philly with a bunch of friends. I will admit to not being the best person to surprise... Okay, okay, I'm really, really horrible with surprises.

So, Friday night when I realized that a quite a few of our friends were coming out for Saturday day/night, I had a wee bit of a meltdown. (A lot of it has to do with the fact that this is going to be a big birthday for me, and I've been wavering between feeling totally indifferent about it to absolute dead panic.) But! After I got it out of my system, I was totally fine and had a fantastic weekend! We went to a Cuban restaurant for dinner Friday night which was amazingly good. On Saturday, we got up early and grabbed brunch where one of my best friends and her husband were waiting for us. That was a surprise! I was thrilled to have them there. After brunch (which was delicious), we went to the Yards Brewery for a private tour where more friends showed up. After the tour, we all hung out drinking and talking in the bar for a few hours. I'm not a big beer person, but it was a lot of fun and low key! I found a couple of beers I liked, and there was a Brazilian barbeque food truck out front... So I was happy. Then we went back to where we were staying to relax for a bit before heading out to dinner (some of the best pizza I've had in a long time, actually! And olives. So many delicious olives).

I was terrified that it was just going to be too much. As an introvert, I get overwhelmed by these things so easily. The thing that I have the most difficulty with is holding off judgment. Delaying the panic and worry until I'm in the situation and can tell myself, see! This is fun!... Well, it's something I need to work on in a major way.  And, of course, once I was there and in it, it really turned out to be just the right amount of planned activities and downtime. We stayed in a couple of apartments (much cheaper than hotel rooms would have been and cozier!), and they made the perfect places to hang out during the in between times. We drank wine, played board games, watched some movies.

So, that was my surprise pre-birthday weekend! They did a brilliant job with the planning (I really had no idea they were up to anything), and it was a fantastic time!

I didn't get any outfit photos until today. So, this is what I wore to go to brunch (where a couple more friends met us!) and then head home.

(Anthropologie cardigan, ModCloth top and heels, thrifted J. Crew skirt, Target tights)

 

I love this babydoll top, but it's long... And I'm short! Since it's just not long enough to wear alone as a dress, I like to throw this blue skirt underneath. I've had the skirt forever, and it keeps coming in handy! The top also has an elastic back which makes it fit kind of oddly. It was almost seventy degrees today (... yep...), so I didn't need to bundle up at all. This is another one of my peacock colour schemes, and instead of just going with blue or grey or cream tights, I decided to try out this dark teal pair. Meh. I'm not in love with it. It's definitely something I'll keep playing with!

Now, it's time to relax. I can't wait to sleep in tomorrow (and catch up on my blog reading)! Hope you've had a good weekend!