It's almost the weekend!

I love the weekend following my birthday. For longer than I can remember, that's been the weekend I go to the beach. Initially, it was a big, family bash -- yet another excuse for my aunts, uncles and cousins to get together in a social calendar which, at its height, seemed to include family gatherings once a week. It was from them that my love of insanely big parties developed. In the past decade, my relatives have opted out of attending. Summer, I know is a busy time for people, and while I've always loved the water, most of my extended family don't swim and don't much care to. I can understand why they can't justify the hour-long trip to a beach where they'll likely just end up sitting out of the sun and uninterested in the water.

I guess some time in the past 6 years or so (I seem to date almost everything, I've noticed, either pre-Matt, or post-Matt), I thought it might be fun to invite friends out, so I invited them. This was a very smart decision on my part (they call me "Leah the Modest", you know), as it's given new life to the excursions. My birthday celebration is once again insanely huge and a helluva lot of fun.

I look forward to this weekend unlike I look forward to the weekend any other time during the year. I can only hope everyone who comes along finds half as much enjoyment in it as I do. As you keep coming out, I'm going to guess you might. To those who can't attend, your presence will be missed, but we won't let that stop us from enjoying ourselves. See most of you tomorrow, then! :)