Wifely Steps

Thank you for the wonderful birthday greetings, e-cards, text messages, e-mails… you filled my heart, guys. Hugs to all.

And now, for the Balloon Birthday Contest winner. I had a blast reading through all your comments. How I wish I could turn them all into reality! 27 trips around the world, trips back in time, trips to fictional places… I wanted to go on all of them! Dr. Emer shared that traveling by balloons IS reality — wow! Who knew? It’s called “Cluster Ballooning.” With the right amount of balloons, these birthday trips could come true.

Now I’ve chosen my ten favorite balloon trips. They are:

Gracey - who shared breakfast with me in Holland (while we wore traditional Dutch attire!), flew with me to the top of Eiffel tower and went for some Parisian shopping, to England for tea in our Jane Austen attire, indulged our book passions and flew back home to our significant others.

Ganns - who took me on a trip to Vienna so we could retrace the steps of Jesse & Celine — two characters from one of my all-time favorite films “Before Sunrise.” While we go around Vienna, we chitchat about life and love, the way good, good friends do.

Cat - who brought me to Forks to hang out with the Cullens, ride with Jacob on his motorcycle, grab a cup of coffee at Port Angeles, and head over to the Swans to get a birthday hug from Charlie!

Dr. Emer - who took me to the home of my favorite poet e.e. cummings, where we take in the inspiration of his surroundings, to the home of Stephenie Meyer where we talk Twilight and have a fantastic lunch, then on to a grand dinner at Gordon Ramsay’s new restaurant where the word “diet” is banned and we feast lavishly!

Shai - who took a rainbow-colored balloon and took me to 7 different places! Our ROYGBIV trip takes us to Australia, the Martha Stewart Show, Paris, New York, a spa resort, Chicago (does that count Shai?) and home sweet home!

Nenette - who chose the red balloon and took me to all places red! “The brilliant orange-red Ayers Rock in Australia, glide over the red-hot lava flows of Kilauea Volcano in Hawai’i, dip our toes in the vast Red Sea, throw blood-red tomatoes and laugh with joy at the Festival La Tomatina in Spain, and finally, enjoy the structures and ceremony of legendary Red Square in Russia…” I’m seeing red and loving it!

J. - who whizzed me off into the darkness and into a huge industrial building where “Breaking Dawn” is being published right then and there! We get our own autographed copies and the balloons whisk us back home — no more other sights because we want to start reading right away!

drunkenlily - who took me hiking so so so early in the morning so we could catch the sunrise and the amazing view of the mountains as the dawn hits their peaks, and feast on hot coffee and a birthday chocolate cupcake for breakfast!

Odette - who took me on a tour of Dublin, amazing me with its grandeur and homeyness at the same time. We share a pint and visit a bad ass cafe in the city, then are whisked off to the country to see the beautiful Irish greens, then to her home where we have a little slumber party!

Lady Cess - who opted to bring her own giant transparent balloon that seats two and takes us back in time to magical moments in my life - my birth, my first meeting with H - and into the future too! Superstar? I like the sound of that!

And now for the winner! I used a List Randomizer for this from Random.org The first name that pops on the list is the winner! And here. we. go.

Congratulations GANNS!!! W00t w00t w000000t! I’ll email you shortly for details. Amazon or Flickr? Would you like a Flickr Pro account to organize and edit your photos and videos? Or would you like to purchase a $25 present from Amazon? Your call, winner!

Let’s congratulate Ganns, you all! Thanks again to everyone who joined. I hope you had fun! I sure did!

♥

- Balloon image by omnibus