As many people reading this will already know – because you were there! – last Saturday was Randi’s surprise 25th birthday party at Carnivale. It had been a stressful two months of constant lying, but everything paid off and it was a completely wonderful evening. There are way too many photos to include here, but obviously a huge thank you to the many, many people who came to celebrate with us or sent videos for my (excessively long) video montage. And special thank yous to:

• Georgelle, who flew in from New York just for the party, and then stayed up chatting on our sofa until 2am before turning around and getting a super-early flight back.
• Randi’s parents, who came from California and hung around Chicago sneakily all Saturday.
• Catherine and AJ, for helping me to organise everything including the venue, food, balloons and emotional support when Randi didn’t understand why we didn’t care about her birthday.
• Todd for running a traditional Todd Trivia session!
• Carnivale for being awesome to organise with. And for including those chocolate cannoli. (Amusing moment: when I first visited, the event organiser apologised for the delay in getting back to me, as “we’ve just been so busy with the NRA in town this week”. I was concerned, before she clarified it was the National Restaurant Association.)
• Jake at Friends First Photography for taking the beautiful photos below. Even though we weren’t a wedding.

Successful surprise!

Catherine, AJ, Randi, Taylor and Billy

Georgelle is a hero and flew in from New York

Side-note: the carrot cake in the background was delicious

Todd adjudicates his trivia

Randi’s parents

“Randi, you’re short enough to just go in front”

Team flatmates!

On Randi’s birthday itself we went to a fundraiser with sloths, and then after the party Randi’s parents stayed in town for the next couple of days, which was lovely. Now I’m largely exhausted and happy to spend an atypical Memorial Day long weekend travelling nowhere and discovering no new states. Last night, however, I did venture out to Todd and Carolyn’s to play Mario Kart with Marte IN WHICH I DID NOT COME LAST (capitalised, bolded, and ready to flag to Amy and Ben) before seeing the new Star Wars film Solo. Which was totally fine, but not very wondrous. And as ever I have some questions about the economics of the Empire which I will spare you all.

Randi Lawrence, Katie Self, Natasha Self, Michaela McGill, Aaron TaylorMays, Catherine Tarsney, Amanda Schalk, Debra Cohen, Beth Dubowe-Lawrence, Mairi Nolan, Phyllis Lawrence, David Boss, Saujanya Gumidyala, Jonathan Jenkins, Jake Miller, Amory Wynn Richards, McKenna McConnell, Maria Dallow, Deborah Herrick, Sharon Dinkin, Helen Hudspith, Marcie Shelansky, Andy Regan, Jonah Freedman, Adam Lannonopolis liked this post.

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