Mr. Cactus Head

My birthday this year coincided with my comprehensive exams which made for a fairly lame birthday, but I did get some incredibly thoughtful gifts.

I often write parody songs for people for their birthdays and I have written two songs for Allison over the years (although never for her birthday, oddly enough).  She wrote me a song to the tune of Colors of the Wind and it was perfect and filled with hilarious inside jokes.  This was my favorite line: "You hugged some cactuses, or is it cacti? That's a tricky one, like using lie or lay."

Dianna has been talking for weeks about how much I would love the birthday present she got me.  When she ran to her car to get the present Carl told me to close my eyes and guess what my present was by feeling it.  I was totally cool with that idea because my best guess was that she'd gotten me a box of doughnuts (I've been telling her for weeks how much I want to eat a really good doughnut).  Dianna  told me not to feel the present with my eyes closed because she, unlike Carl, doesn't want me to get hurt.  She had me open my eyes and there in front of me was a cute little barrel cactus.  I love cactuses (cacti?) and I was thrilled.

Then Dianna excitedly said, "Wait, there's more!"  She then pulled out a box of what appeared to be random crap.

A box of random crap

I looked at the box for about 10 seconds and admitted, "I have no idea what this is for."  She then explained that the stuff in the box was to decorate the cactus for different occasions.  You see, in December I saw some saguaros with Santa hats on them and I thought it was the coolest thing ever (like hyperbole) and Dianna used the information to get me the perfect present.  Fun Laura helped her make some of the props.  I had no idea how much I wanted a cactus I could decorate until I had one.

This is how its currently decorated

Ready for a Saint Patrick's day pub crawl

Dressed up as Hermione for Halloween

Unaware of what teaching the pilgrims about corn is going to do to his civilization

That hat is supposed to be a bandanna, but I couldn't figure out how to put it on right 

Cowboy!

Dressed for the big game against ASU

I got some other super-thoughtful gifts.  Fun Laura bought a card nine months ago that says: "Hyperbole is the best thing ever!"  She new I would love it and waited to give it to me.  And I do love it.

LeAnne set me some money, told to get some takeout, and then Skype with her while I eat it so it'd be like she took me out to dinner.  I'm excited about that.

Jenn, Lani, and Cari bought me a toilet plunger because my house doesn't have one.  I've lived here for over and year and have only needed one once.  I had to borrow Danielle's which was only slightly embarrassing.  A very thoughtful gift indeed.

I had a great time turning a year older and mostly I'm just impressed that my friends know me well enough to get me such awesome gifts.

Also, tune into Shark Tank in a two years to see Dianna, fun Laura, and me try to raise $100,000 for our company Mr. Cactus Head.  We don't have a lot of sales, but everyone says they love our product.  Band-aids will be included in every box because Mr. Cactus Head is pointier than most children's toys.