Tuesday, August 17, 2010

From THREE-OWWW To THREE-OOH!

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It was a whirlwind of a weekend!

So, I crossed into the darkside last Wednesday by marking a whole 30 years on the planet. Yeah, to say I have been grappling is to put it mildly––woe WAS me. I WAS in such a dismal state about this, you'd swear I thought turning 30 was the beginning of the end and that in my slumber, deep crows feet and mouth wrinkles would appear at the stroke of midnight. Little did I know, it's the beginning of well––the beginning! **Or, at least this is the gospel according to my glamaw, and I take what she says suurrriouzzly.

Only one way to combat this 30 year glitch––throw a party! Do it! So I enlisted the help of Mr. Trapped and got to planning right away. I know, sounds pathetic to plan your own party, right? Truth be told, I'm WAY too much of a control freak to let someone else do it, and dreaming up ideas for parties gets me all warm and fuzzy. My friends know me well enough to just let me do my thing––or so I thought.... read on to see how this bit me in my rapidly flattening butt big time. 

We decided to throw a zydeco brunch over at our house (could I be ANY more of a masochist? I mean, seriousssslllllaaaayyyy) 


**A local hot-spot, Café des Amis does a Zydeco Breakfast every Saturday with live music, so how appropriately cheesy to say Café des Ah-V for the party––I couldn't help myself ;) And if you ever visit you HAVE to go to the real Zydeco Breakfast, trust me...it's a blast!
If you don't know what zydeco is, then please listen up––Zydeco is a regional style of music, and by regional, I mean indigenous to the creole and cajun area of the state––aka Acadiana (Cajun Country) where I have been born, raised and where I live eat and breathe zydeco every chance I get. 


A video by Clifton Chenier––arguably the biggest legend in Zydeco history. I see you dancing in your seat! You can't help but move at least something, when you hear this, right?

••••••••••••••••••••••


Ahem, back to me. So of course it couldn't be just any party, I had to make things super hard on myself and do this, do that, oh what about this? That? Oh, sure I can run around 50 million places. Pre-made quiche? You outta ya crazy mind, I can make that. Cake I've never attempted to make? Got that too. And of course everything had to be stylized TO DEATH.




THE ONE SMALL SNAFU:










Unbeknownst to me–– my friends, my mother (visiting from Florida) and Mr.Trapped were plotting a surprise birthday party for me on the Friday night. Get that? The night before the brunch, there was another surprise party! I was blindfolded, driven around for 30 minutes, made very nervous, and almost fainted when everyone shouted SURPRRRRRRISEEEEE!!!








When in doubt, dress up. You should have seen what Mr.Trapped almost let me leave the house in until I pressured him for an appropriate dress code. 


Friends, that is the face of a control freak after being kept in the dark for 30 minutes. They said it looked like they might as well have had butcher knives coming at me ;) My friends are a funny lot. 


Suprise Birthday photos generously taken by who other than Gwen!






My poor husband......he worked like a dog to pull this off! My friends too! My mom too!! How they kept it from me is beyond my comprehension. I was flattered beyond words. I was too nervous to cry. I saw friends I had not seen in months, friends who told big lies to me and said they couldn't make the brunch etc., etc. 

The poor things didn't know WHAT to do when I foiled all of their plans and came up with the brunch. They were already knee-deep in planning and decided to just trudge forward knowing that I'd figure them all out if they tried to get me to move my enagagement around (I'm stubborn AND super perceptive, a very dangerous combination I suppose).



The morning after 
{Oh, I only had a wee sip of wine the whole night. Or two bottles. Or three}


photo courtesy of bella sugar


Me: %$%#!@#!#@%$$(*&*%%!!!!!! OMGGGGG, I have 32,473 things to do before 11 a.m.
and it's 8:07––ughhhhhhhh.

Needless to say, I didn't do yoga that morning.

Me: YOU CAN DO IT. YOU'RE THIRTY NOW. YOU CAN DO ANYTHING. BECAUSE  THIRTY MEANS YOU ARE AT AN ALL TIME LEVEL OF MATURITY AND GRACE. {The pep talk was the only thing keeping the hangover at bay}


WRONGGGGG!! My awesome neighbors, mom, dad, friends, aunts saved my hiney BIGTIME. I owe them in a huge way. THAT makes me want to cry.








 pronounced {gree-yahds}



So the THREE-OWW, became the THREE-OOH really quickly. What was most exciting about this whole turn of events was how it gave me the opportunity to reflect on the many people in my life who are SO generous, selfless, so gracious, who would do almost anything for me {and I for them of course} I feel so fortunate, loved and overwhelmed––it was a really touching and humbling past week y'all {sniff sniff} With all of this goodness around me, the thought of aging is a mere wrinkle in my memory––and with that said, I'm more than thrilled about what my thirtayyy's will bring––it don't seem so bad afterall :)




xoxo,


Andrea (ol' hag)

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4 comments:

Kelle Dame said...

Happy Three-ooh!! You crack me up every time!! I still have another year or so before this happens to me but your birthday seemed absolutely fabulous! btw you looked completely Audrey in your little black dress!

All The Trappings said...

Thank you Kelle!!!

I was wondering why he told me "dressy" when he was in jeans, but it all makes sense now ;)

The whole weekend was such a blast, and now...ooof. Back to work and being boring ;)

Ms. Cote de Velvet Greige said...

Great party! Love your blog. I just started one that I think you'll love too. Please stop by. Ms. CotedeVelvetGreige! :)

Alycia Nichols said...

Hi, Andrea! Thanks for popping in last night to my little blogazine! You're a sweetie!!! OK...where do I start? :-) I'm quite familiar with grits, but you KNOW I had to look up what grillades are (is?), and I'm still not really sure. The photos & recipes I found on Google varied, some with the meat in a square, others with it ground up. At any rate, it sounds really good and I MUST get my Cajun cookin' friend Andre to come over and whip up a batch with me after I flog him for never telling me about this wonderful dish! Oh...also, does it count against me if I occasionally have grits with crushed garlic & cheese rather than red eye gravy? Yankees! Go figure!!! Next...your 30th birthday party story was hilarious!!! Hilarious, I tell you! The look on your face was priceless!!! I feel you on the "control freak" thing, though. I like to plan my own parties (surprise and otherwise!), too! I know that no one else really wants to go through all the trouble it would take to make me truly thrilled! :-) Like you, I'm going to take my time and browse through your blog. You do beautiful work, your sense of humor is borderline rubber room (just like me!), and I think we could really get along! Third, what you did with this table was fab! I love everything about it with the oranges, the flowers, the fancy food markers. Stunning! We can REALLY get along! Last...30 is not old by ANY stretch of the imagination. I'm nearly (don't get ahead of yourself...I said NEARLY!!!) twice your age, and I am "kickin' it" as the kids say. My 81-year-old Mom is serving her 2nd term in the Missouri Senate and hanging with the youngest of 'em! So 30 is still a fetus as far as we're concerned! :-) You're a doll! Have a fabulous Halloween weekend, and I will be gliding all through your blog (I'm even going to become a follower!) over the next couple of days. See ya!