I can’t believe I have to say that I’m “30 years old” when people ask me my age. It just doesn’t seem right. But there it is. So for my 30th, my sweet Mom and Michael asked me what I wanted to do for the day. My Mom was leaving out of Paris to go back to the States, so I said, heck yes, let’s do my birthday there.
They also asked me if I had any special requests. My answer was yes. I wanted to have balloons by the Eiffel Tower. Easy enough, right?? Well it sounded like no big to me. I’m a blogger. This makes sense.
We arrived to a very very chilly Paris on Friday and my Mom found the cutest balloon shop (Milles Fêtes) near the monument. I looked around the store and picked the gold foil numbers. When the lady rang me up she mentioned that when I go outside the balloons would deflate a little. But not to worry, inside they’d go right back up. Here was my first clue that this wasn’t going to work out as planned. After purchasing an overpriced “0” and “3” we grabbed an Uber and headed to the Eiffel Tower.
The driver dropped us right in front of the steel frame and we hopped out excitedly, but man, it was cold. I had on a little dress and tights and my puffy red coat, but I really didn’t want that coat in the picture. So off it went.
I got my camera and settings adjusted. Michael and my Mom each held a balloon and I kept noticing how the balloons were flailing around in the wind. But it’d die down… right?
Michael grabbed the camera and I started shivering. I thought I would hold the balloons by the strings but the wind was blustering so hard the three kept twirling around so that you couldn’t see how old I was truly turning.
My teeth started chattering and I looked up at the ominous sky – was it going to rain? Yes, yes it was. The balloons were helpless to the blustering wind, I had to hold them by the bottom. I kept wondering if they were going to suddenly fly out of my hands, right into the the Eiffel Tower.
As the rain started falling a small crowd stood watch as the idiot blonde girl with the “3-0” balloons shivered in the cold in a mini dress and boots while smiling for pictures.
At one point, my Mom said “STOP! Michael is turning 30 too… get a picture of him.” And so, I did. Michael is 4 whole months younger than me which is a big sore subject between us.
I decided to continue the fun and get some pictures in the freezing rain without balloons. You know, because I'm nuts.
*Laughing through the pain*
It was a fail. Some pictures came out okay, but really, it was an epic fail.
As soon as I got my coat back on we walked on to the closest bus to warm up and get rid of the stupid balloons. Michael took this picture of me right outside the trash cans that perfectly sums up the whole experience:
When we got on the bus, we started howling with laughter. It might not have been my brightest decision, but really, it was funny. I don’t think I’ll ever forget turning 30 in Paris. And some other people who witnessed it might not either.
