First, my husband and kids woke me up to wonderful birthday wishes and my husband kick-started my day with eggs and grits--one of my favorite breakfast meals.
Then I had an email from Catzie bright and early wishing me a Happy Birthday. Then once I got to work, my friend Virter aka Spirit greeted me with a birthday kiss and blessings. Later that morning, I met my friend Betsy at a wonderful little restaurant called Cafe Lift, where she treated me to lunch and conspired with the waitress to sing Happy Birthday to me in front of EVERYONE, completely embarrassing me. Lucky for me, Betsy had her camera to capture the whole face-reddening moment.

I am so totally cheesin' to hide my embarrassment--but I have to admit it was a whole lotta fun. And the bread pudding was scrumptious.
After lunch. Betsy drove us back to CCP so that we could meet up with my spoken word poetry group. Little did I know that Betsy was involved in yet ANOTHER conspiracy with my friend and colleague Leslye and all the students to surprise me with another party. Again, Betsy was there to capture the Kodak moment of my utter astonishment.



Here are the lovely folks who are responsible for all these embarrassing cheesin' photos of me. My wonderful poetry group, forever striking the usual hard-as-hell photo poses--it's a party for goodness sake!


Thank you, everyone--my family and friends--for making my birthday so special.
Finally I want to give a shout to Melissa, who made it to my afternoon party late b/c she had class. Here she is on YouTube putting her thang down poetically. The video is dark at the start, but after several seconds, someone shines a spotlight on her. Enjoy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2_EvIZY-Uw&feature=related
I love you all,
Michelle