Dear Diary,

I awoke up the next morning with a smile on my face. I was thinking that I was going to have to rethink the not celebrating my birthday. Yesterday had been such a wonderful day. Maybe my birthday luck was finally changing…

The next day I walked into the bullpen and into my office after saying hello to everyone. I know that I caused some eyebrows to rise due to my good mood. I didn’t realize how suspicious it was until Gunny and Tiner knocked on my door. I knew that they were up to something. My suspicions were confirmed when Tiner pulled an envelope and small box from behind his back.

"Ma'am, Lt. Simms let it slip that yesterday was your birthday so we thought that we would get you a little something."

"Gunny. Tiner. You didn't have to get me anything,” I said even though I was touched that they had thought of me.

"Ma'am," said Tiner. "You always do something for us, we just wanted to return the kindness. It isn't much."

"But we thought that you would like it," finished Gunny as Tiner handed it to me. I took it and opened the little box first. It was a Corvette key chain. I smiled up at Tiner who was beaming back at me. The key chain must have been his idea. I opened the envelope and saw a gift certificate to a local car wash. I looked up at Gunny.

"I know you like your car, ma'am. We thought you could make good use of this," he said with his usual no nonsense tone.

“Thank you. That is very nice of you,” I said.

They both smiled and said, “You’re welcome,” before nodding then going back out to work.

The rest of the day passed uneventfully until I decided to listen to the CD that AJ had given me last night. Bud had once told me how simple it was to play music on our computers so I often played some softly as I worked. Too bad I didn’t think to listen to the CD last night since I would have had yet another birthday surprise.

In the case, I found a small envelope with my name on it in AJ's scrawl. I dropped the CD in the drive then looking around to make sure that no one would see, I opened the note. I am glad that I had taken that precaution, since I soon had a big smile on my face.

Sarah,

I hope you don’t have plans for this weekend. I have two tickets to see Andrea Bocelli. I was hoping that you would like to join me. I’ll pick you up tomorrow night at 1900.