There's only one national holiday worth recognizing during Virgo season, and no, I'm not talking about Labor Day. It's August 24th, Sam's birthday, of course!
The pressure's on, because we've got one shot per year to impress Grapevine's reigning birthday queen. In case you were wondering how you could celebrate Sam on her special day (which—hey!—be a little more prepared next time), here's some inspo:
1. Send her a Shein gift card with unlimited, auto-replenishing funds, so she can buy all the £2 cleaning supplies she could ever want
Real UGC of an AirPods cleaner tool.
Sam’s headstone will read, and I quote, “liked cleaning with 50p objects from Shein.” A self-professed addict, Sam is on The Dark Side of Shein that most of us haven’t yet stumbled upon, and hopefully never will. (She’s getting ear piercing guns targeted to her feed, so.)
Sam delights in tools that strike the perfect balance between being clever, useful, and silly, but most of all, cheap. Because why have just one AirPods cleaner tool when you can have 10? Petition for Sam to start an anonymous blog called “Weird Random Crap I Bought On Shein For No Reason.”
2. Gift her a Lego set that she can proudly display on shelves from Shein
Sam's Lego sets.
Sam loves “creating”, so it’s no surprise that her idea of a fun time is sitting down with a Lego set and going to town. This ties back to the previous point, because she WILL purchase shelving from Shein to display the new Legos you’ve so kindly bought her. Bonus points if it’s a city set.
3. Help her put together the most epic picnic basket Penny’s school has ever seen
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We all know Sam doesn’t do anything halfway. So when Penny’s school hosts an outdoor picnic celebrating a very British event like the King’s Coronation, you can bet she’s already in the kitchen, slicing off sandwich crusts and baking up a storm.
Penny’s teacher from 2 years ago has said that Sam’s picnic baskets are the talk of the town, so you’ll need to help Sam hold on to her reputation by assisting her with sandwich prep, etc. Plus, she’s sorta famous for her lemonade. Drop the recipe, Sam!
4. Buy her a one-way ticket to a unique, perhaps remote, international destination
Sam living her best life in Havana.
Know anybody that’s been to Antarctica? Sam has! Not only has she traversed that big ol' chunk of ice, but she’s also been to Cuba, Africa, and many other cool spots. If you didn’t know, Sam hails from Bristol, England, and even lived in Copenhagen for a while as a kid. So, you might as well celebrate Sam by gifting her a first class ticket to wherever Delta flies. (Sam, take me with you!).
5. Show up to her birthday party with any dessert that is NOT chocolate cake
Sam's fave: Key lime pie.
If you thought everyone liked chocolate, you haven’t met Sam. Don’t place an order for a chocolate cake, because she won’t enjoy it. (Well, she might pretend to, but just know she’ll be a tiny bit disappointed). Instead, win her over with a key lime pie. Bonus points if you also bring her a side of buffalo wings.
6. Just do something nice for her, dangit
Sam’s love language is acts of service. Read: make Sam’s day by taking a figurative fancy pen and checking things off her to-do list, whether that means coming up with a content angle (or ten) or building an assignment (or ten). This is the woman who simultaneously runs the show at Sophisticated Weddings magazine, whips up all the interesting article ideas at GV, and is Penny’s mom, after all!
This dual time-zone world traveler somehow has more hours in the day than the rest of us combined (seriously, Sam, tell us your productivity hacks!), so even if you’re just extra diligent about your Oxford comma usage (IYKYK) or you jazz up a Google Doc with a Sam-approved font (think: Comfortaa), it won’t go unnoticed by the birthday gal.
HBD from all of us grapes on the vine, Sam! 🎈
