I'm 30..... and a new Mom!

This is very weird to say- 30. How did I get to be 30 anyway? When someone says that happened in the 90s I still think that it wasn't that long ago- but really......it was, like 10+ years ago. Crazy!
My 30th birthday was also the first time Pablo and I have spent my birthday together. Looks like in 9 years September wasn't one of our meeting months!
I wasn't really sure he remembered or if we would do anything so I reminded him the day before that it would be nice to do something!
My birthday was on a Saturday and he set his alarm to wake us up...on a Saturday. I was like, what are you doing? He said I had to get up because we were leaving. I had no idea where we were going so I started coming up with ideas in my head. For some reason I thought we were going to the Warner Brothers Amusement Park because a week before he asked if I wanted to go--I said no. But I was still afraid we were going there. We got in the car and luckily drove in the opposite direction so I was happy about that. We headed north of Madrid and I then thought we were going to a little town up in the mountains or something to have lunch and drink beers. As we were driving along a country road we suddenly slowed and turned onto a dirt road. I thought I saw horses and ask are, we riding horses? I don't like riding horses and he knows that! Then I figure it out, we are at an animal shelter. He said surprise, we are going to adopt a cat. I was kind of in shock that we were really doing this. We have talked about it for a long time, getting a cat. But we have had the wedding, the trips, no money so I thought we'd wait awhile.
We walked up to the main office and Pablo writes down our names on a list. There are a lot of people there waiting because Saturday is open adoption day. We sit down on the bench and wait and the realization that we are getting a cat gets me. My cat Luna died in July, about two weeks before I came home. We knew she was old but it was still very hard and I was sad I didn't say goodbye. And getting a new cat so soon all I thought about was Luna and how I miss her and I don't want her to be mad. So I sat there on the bench and cried.
We waited about a half hour and then a woman came to greet us and take us to the cat area. There are two  cat areas where they are all free to roam around inside and outside. It is actually a very nice place because they have a lot of space and toys. We checked out both rooms and met all the cats, well the ones that weren't scared. We were originally looking for a female, adult cat. Pablo said it was my decision on the cat. That was stressful because I wanted to make it together and I was hoping I'd pick the right cat. In the first area Pablo really liked this all black cat. It was so cute and very loving so we kept it on the mental list. We went to the second area and liked one of the male cats but we kind of passed him by because we planned on a female. Then we went back to the first area to look at the black cat but this time it wasn't nice and chasing all the other cats away. I didn't like this. But there were two cats there who were very affectionate and not shy and followed me around. (They knew how to work the game). I ended up liking these two the best. One was black and white and the other was a tabby color and white. I told Pablo I liked between these two and they ended up both being males. Finally after much debate I picked the black and white one named Allen.

Our boy

We went back to the office and did all the paperwork, had the vet check him and we off. We had a cat!
The story of Allen is pretty interesting. They found him in May in a manhole pretty banged up and they believe he is 4 years old. The name for manhole in spanish is Alcantaria and so at first the shelter named him Alcant, a girl name short for Alcantaria. Well when someone wrote the name Alcant on a card or something they ended up writing the c, more like an L, and the next person to read the card thought it said Allan. After all this they took him in to get spay and realized she was really a he. So the mess up in names really worked out because apparently Alcantaria is a girl name.

His favorite toy- the string

He is the cutest when he is sleeping

But he sleeps in some really weird positions

Alkie and his daddy

When we got home we liked the manhole story because Pablo fell in one last year so we thought it was fitting, even if it is a girl name. At first I had a hard time saying Alcant or Alcan so I named him Alkie for short. After spending two weeks with him, he has ended up with a variety of names- Alkie, Foofi (friends cat), Alcan, Alcant, Dalki, Walki Talki, crazy-freak, boogie-man (he has a lot of boogers), ect. He is a very affectionate cat but also turns into a wacko and runs all around the house. He loves to play with his string and attacks our feet when we sleep. He isn't learning very well that he can't scratch the couch or our bed even though he has two scratching posts but I have hope that one day he'll figure it out.

Alcant written on the manhole

To round out my birthday Pablo took me to dinner at an Italian restaurant in our neighborhood. It was a surprise, which Pablo really likes. He likes it when I don't know things and he does because usually I know everything! We had a great dinner with lots of wine and lemoncello. Then we went to a couple bars to cap off the eveing with a couple vodka tonics. It was fun to get dressed up and have a nice romantic evening with my husband! But we had to go home early and check on new addition! :)

Drinking some vodka tonics