Day 30 - Happy Birthday Eric!, originally uploaded by clarity25.

Today is a special day. It's Eric's birthday.

We went to the California Street Cafe for breakfast. We had fresh croissants, delicious coffee and wraps.

In the afternoon, we went Happy Hour pub crawling. We had 1 dollar Corona's at "the Cellar". We had imported beer with Oysters at &O'Reilly's Holy Grail.

This was my first time really trying Oysters. I looked down at the shells lined up with the slimy booger resembling substance twisted inside. I took a deep breath and cast Eric a doubtful look.

"C'mon try it", He urged.

"Aren't they alive?", I asked

"It depends on your definition of the word. Listen, just follow my lead. Squeeze some lemon over it and plop a dollop of cocktail sauce on it with the little spoon" he instructed.

I did it nervously.

"Now hold the shell up to your lips and whatever you do. DONT LOOK DOWN. That's the key. Just look into my eyes and slurp it out of the shell" Eric continued.

I followed his instructions and gazed into his eyes while I slurped the oyster into my mouth. For a moment I just held it there in my mouth. I was THIS close to spitting it out and running out of the pub screaming in horror.

But I chewed a bit and swallowed. Then I took a big gulp of beer, my eyes wide.

"I DID IT!!" It wasn't as bad as a I anticipated. It had a nice consistency and tasted more like salt water than anything else. Not so scary...

Eric smiled "Okay, next one...."

Afterwards we had a little party at the house with the roommates We had a small cake with candles (see picture above) we sang happy birthday and Eric opened his presents.

Then we headed to the Hemlock Tavern for some more drinks and a few rounds of pool. (Yes, I'm getting better at it...)

Then we went to Encore. It's a karoake bar.

I mentioned to the girl behind the bar that it was Eric's birthday.

She ended up pulling ME onto THE STAGE to sing "happy birthday" in front of THE ENTIRE CROWDED PUB

It was my first time singing Karoake on stage and I'm not much of a singer.

The first moment she handed me the microphone.. I was paralyzed with fear and terror. I kept thinking "this isn't happening". I felt like Cameron Diaz in "My bestfriend's wedding" and my voice is just as bad. But I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.

Seeing the tears in Eric's eyes while I sang to him on stage made it all worth it in the end.

He hugged me tightly and said "That was the best birthday gift you could have given me. I'll remember that for the rest of my life"

Happy birthday, My love! Here's to many more future birthdays we'll celebrate together and thank you for making me the happiest woman alive.

I love you.

Day 30 of 365 days.