I feel bad...

...and it is SO frustrating....

Sunday was Jeremy's 27th birthday...happy birthday (again), babe! :). For a while, I had planned on having a birthday party for him. I had one last year...a surprise! I had arranged for his best Bloomington guy friends to meet out at Medici (which was a new restaurant here in town at the time) for pizza and then come back here to our place for dessert, along with their wives/girlfriends/whatever if they wanted. I think Jer had a great time with his friends, and I was happy to have pulled off the surprise. I decided against the surprise this year and instead talked to him about what restaurant he'd like to go to and what friends he'd like to invite. I also decided against having just guys...because, quite frankly, I wanted to go too :). We planned this year's party for Saturday night (Feb. 28th) at CJ's here in town, not far from our house.
(I started this post on Monday and never finished it! I will finish it now--Sat 3/7!)
I suggested CJ's because I know they serve Jeremy's favorite Chicago-style deep-dish pizza in town. I KNEW it would be a struggle for me to sit there and watch him eat pizza, but I made the sacrifice, because it was his birthday and he LOVES it!! I know, I am being kind of dramatic...referring to it as "a sacrifice"...but in a way, it really was! It is NO fun to sit there and watch people eat pizza. It is one of the worst food issues I have.
Anyway, so I invited tons of his (mostly) local friends and said we would be having dinner at CJ's and then everyone was invited back to our place for dessert...
Well, we had a great turn-out...Chuck and Sarah came, Brooke and Jamie stayed for dinner (they were visiting from Rockford!), Aaron and Katie came, Jon (Jeremy's brother), Alec, and Josh and Laura. It was a great group of fun people!
We had reservations for 6:30, but we ended up hanging out by the crowded bar until a few minutes after seven because they never got a table ready for us. At one point (around 6:50), I went over to the hostess stand and asked some lady about it and if our table would be ready soon...pointing out, of course, that we had reservations for 6:30....her response? "Well, do you have a keg of dynamite? Because we're just waiting for some people to move so we can get your table together!" EXCUSE ME?! Yeah, she really said that. It was interesting.
Well...we FINALLY got seated ;) and started to look at the menus. EVERYONE ordered the deep-dish Chicago-style pizza. Awesome...or not. So, once the meal arrived I had to sit there and watch everyone eat that yummy-gooey-cheesy pizza. Let's just say, I was in a mood. HA! Oh, and before that, people ordered tons of deep-fried, breaded appitizers. So, it was pretty awesome to sit there and watch those being consumed as well. I know, I know...it was my HUSBAND'S birthday...and I tried to have a good attitude. I didn't, though!
Oh, and the waitress delivered those 4 awesome-smelling and looking pizzas...and realized she had forgotten my entree somewhere. Great. So, I sat there LONGER with no food in front of me to distract me! When she brought it out...it was pathetic. I had ordered the broiled cod and the darn cod fillet was no more than THREE inches long. Seriously. I had ordered it there before, so I KNEW that wasn't how it typically was. I was pissed...it was bad enough to be eating fish when everyone else had pizza, but the size of it was really pathetic. That darn 3" of fish cost me 13.99! Reeeeediculous.
Ok, ok, I'll stop ;).
I felt terrible sitting there and being so cranky and I kept telling myself to cut it out, it wasn't a big deal, etc., etc....but I kept getting MORE upset at myself for being upset at all so it was just one big upset, uncomfortable mess. I didn't even take any pictures at dinner because I was in such a foul mood! Silly me!
After dinner, though, things turned around. We all went back to our place (minus Sarah...she wasn't feeling well...she had just gotten back from an overnight trip to Atlanta to see Ben Folds and was hungover and tired ;)) and plus Adam and Jami who joined us around 11. I served the yummy-looking oreo ice cream cake I had made for Jeremy (again, sacrifices I made for his birthday! ;) It's one of his favorite desserts) and I ate some yummy Edy's vanilla ice cream with dark chocolate hot fudge on top. I wasn't suffering there! ;) ;) HA!
Hopefully next year I will be a big girl at Jeremy's birthday party. Good grief!
All in all, though, it was a great evening with friends...and I am DEFINITELY thankful we have so many fun and wonderful friends :)
Thanks, guys, for putting up with cranky ol' ME! :)