Happy Birthday to ME!

I am now officially 28 years old.

Saturday night, My parents, my brother, my sister, her boyfriend, her boyfriend's son, one of my nieces, Tim, Kelly and I went to Green Field Churrascaria in Rockville for dinner. I blame André for my love of Brazilian BBQ now. After a very filling dinner of meat, the servers came out singing "Happy Birthday" in Portuguese with a slice of plain cheesecake. At dinner I could not stop talking about my ride along with US Park Police the night before. My parents both commented my shifting has got significantly smoother since they last rode in the car. It just took time for me to get used to working a manual transmission after not having once since 2003, when the Mazda died.

Sunday was my roommate Julie's birthday. We celebrated by making BBQ Chicken, sweet potato fries, steamed broccoli, potato salad and baked beans. Afterwards we celebrated with an ice cream cake from Caravel. So yummy, so fattening. Earlier in the day I attempted to take my dad to get free mulch from Prince George's County. However they ran out as we pulled up. I took Dundee up the road with me to my parents house and I took him for a walk to the neighbor's house where there is a flock of sheep. He knew what they were when he heard them bah. He is supposed to be bred from working Australian Shepherd lines. I would really like to teach him how to work as a shepherding dog, but my roommate that owns him is opposed to doing that. Oh well.

For my birthday, I took it easy and went into hiding. Well, not exactly. I called the Commissioner's Office to schedule my sit in. Then my power went out around 2:30 PM. I ended up meeting up with Shannon at St. Charles Towne Center. I bought a new shirt at Aeropostale, some Watermelon margarita mix at Kohls. I picked up my contact lens order from Sams Club, and then we hit Circuit City. Shannon bought me a copy of Edward Scissorhands on Blu Ray for my birthday. Then we went by my brother's house to pick up my mail. Rusty and Trouble got Shannon's shirt full of cat hair (mostly Rusty). Then I dropped Shannon off at her car and I returned home. My roommates made steak and potato along with some left overs for my birthday dinner. At least the power came back on by 6:30. My roommates got me Cooking Mama Cook Off for my Wii, got me Juno and Independence Day on Blu Ray, Purple Rain on HD-DVD, a pair of Xbox sleep pants and a tshirt. I know I am getting more swag from my friends on Friday at my birthday party at Tim's house. My parents are getting me something too, I just need to get them the information from my Amazon.com wish list.

I am working on scheduling a ride along with the Prince George's County police. Even though the idea of doing Prince George's County police is not really appealing, I am running out of options on many fronts. At least the pay is reasonable and I'd get a take home car for use in the County. In many ways I feel like my world is shrinking, due to my parents deteriorating health. I have to stay close to make sure they are taken care of. I just hope they realize how much of a sacrifice I am making to keep them comfortable.