My birthday is coming up really, really fast. If I go by tradition, I would be planning to spoil myself for it, which oftentimes include: birthday shoes, birthday dress, birthday mani-pedis with friends, birthday dinner, [and more recently] birthday massage. The dress and shoes may still happen, mostly because the heel fell off of one of my more comfortable shoes- it’s lingering somewhere on Bryn Mawr between the train station and Walgreens. The dress would happen, well, because I want it to. What can I say, I like pretty things.

The point is, I’m creating this post for those people who love me & want to give me something that is so outlandishly expensive that I probably won’t be able to accept it. Probably. Here are my lofty birthday gift desires:

1. Everpurse

Photo credit: Everpurse

Geared for on-the-go women, the company seamlessly (no pun intended) blends tech and fashion into phone-charging purses. I honestly carry my phone charger with me wherever I go now. I can drain that 3G network like no other.

2. Baratza Encore

Photo credit: Baratza

Ask me about hand grinders. I’ve gone through three different ones. They are a pain and kind of awkward. The best grinding position, I’ve found, is to sit with the grinder between your knees and crank away really fast. This is a totally okay situation to be in when you live by yourself and you’re only making coffee for yourself. But, when it comes to hosting parties or wanting to run experiments, you can’t really grind more than one cup  at a time. Also, there’s no real way to maintain consistency on the grind setting after a cleaning. You have to count the number of “clicks” in and who really wants to do that?

Having an automatic grinder would be a real dream. I have so many brew methods at home that being able to say that X is the setting for X brew method would be so lovely. Also, not having to crank away with my arm when I’m half-asleep would be wonderful, too. Baratza has such a great reputation in the industry that I would love to have one of their products at my coffee station.

3. Some Apple products

Photo credit: Apple

If you have spare cash lying around, I’ll take a Macbook Pro, iMac, Adobe Illustrator, and why the heck not, an iPhone 5. My very reliable Macbook has been working for the last 6 years (bang on wood) and has just been slowing down more and more. I’d also love to learn how to use Illustrator!

4. Dinner at Next, Alinea, and/or Girl & the Goat

Photo credit: Alinea

These restaurants are my definition of a merge between food and design. They’re some of the best restaurants in Chicago with consistently crazy beautiful reviews. Have you seen their food? They’re works of art! And for a self-declared foodie, it would be an honor to experience and document what I eat here.

Girl & the Goat menu item:

wood oven roasted pig face
sunny side egg . tamarind . cilantro . red wine-maple . potato stix

How could you resist that?!

I guess I could go on. Fly me to Paris, NYC, Thailand, etc. In reality, though, I don’t have too much planned for tomorrow. Maybe a nice picnic on the beach, see some friends, be really selfish with what I want (because you obviously get a pass on your birthday).

How do you normally celebrate your birthday?