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Wrote this post yesterday, then didn't post it because I had a minor cleaning frenzy.

Holy crap that was a good birthday.

I made out like a bandit, but that wasn't the major reason why I ended the day feeling cozy and content with life. Though when we arrived at my grandparents' house, my mom walked into the dining room and I heard "Jesus! It looks like Christmas in here!" I went, and I regret not taking a picture because I haven't had a pile of boxes like that since I was a little kid and was happy with Littlest Pet Shop. As you get older/gifts get more expensive, the number of boxes goes down... and there's still a part of me that gets super excited about a huge pile of boxes.

So that morning I went to Starbucks and finished A Heart for the Sorceress, which is a story that's been giving me fits for about a month. Finally managed to wrap it up! I don't know if it's any good, so I need to bounce it off some beta readers (any takers?). Given that the day before I completed La Monstra Brewing Co. and fired off a little story that afternoon, Coffee With the Unnamed General, I guess I have my writing mojo back. It was a near thing, I've been fighting the tide for weeks now.

Then I thought, I want to announce my birthday with a cute picture. And I know just the one.



I actually drove out there just to take a picture of the sign (and buy some plants, but mostly the sign). He has a little party hat! From The Neighborhood Fish Farm. I didn't mean to, but I also got a betta-- he's red, with bright blue eyes. I am not normally a veil tail person, but I had a need.* I also procured The Fluval Spec V to house him.**

Then I put on the best shirt ever (in green, natch) and went out to dinner. Then had the chocolatest cake I have ever seen.

And funny story about the gifts I got:

I make a list, because while a lot of things cross my "I want" radar I am poor at reporting. So I put Claire Hummel's historically accurate Disney princesses on my list and said which ones I wanted. Only problem? My family couldn't recognize most of them,*** and the website doesn't say who is who (haha, oops). Fortunately my list included most of them (I was really jazzed for Jasmine and Aurora but didn't say I NEED THOSE because I like surprises and saying that ensures I am not surprised) so I got the two my grandmother could recognize, Cinderella and Mulan. The pictures don't do them justice, guys, the detail is incredible and the print quality is super-duper high. My grandmother also got them in the big size I didn't know existed, which means I may finally have something to fill the space over my couch.

Just be careful when you touch them, because finger prints.

Then I got a purse! Which is emblematic of 1) how damn good my grandmother's taste is, and 2) how well she can gauge my taste. She got my mother a super cute purse for Christmas in coral, and I've been envious of it. But mom has it! I can't have it. The company has a bunch of other vintage-style purses (I really like well-structured purses as opposed to slouchy ones so the vintage-y styles in right now fill me with want), and some of them come in a totally boss green or canary yellow (I look flawless in bright yellows so I want ALL THE YELLOWS). Friday I'm walking through the mall with grandma and point out a yellow purse in the vintage style. "Oh look at that!"

"It's not the same yellow," grandma says.

"Yeah. But... it's nice." It's kind of a greenish yellow.

I promptly forget about it. And last night I had a box and figured "oh it's gonna be the slouchy purse in yellow." Open a box with the one I pointed out on Friday. Grandma's triumphant: "I've had that purse for a month! I had no idea if you'd like it, and then you pointed it out in the store! HA!"

It's a shame I didn't appreciate my grandmother's fashion sense until I grew up. I could have spared myself so much pain as a teenager. Her style is definitely not my style, but she knows how to make me feel pretty.

Then I ended up with a bunch of other stuff that quickly disseminated into my mountain of stuff, merging into the mass until it's hard to tell what's new and what's not, except the new stuff is in boxes because I love keeping things shiny and new for as long as possible.

Send help I am maybe actually a dragon.

*My female crowntail, Fury, had an unfortunate encounter with my floor on Friday.

**I've been planning on getting a 20 gallon long to house Babyfish, the Ram That Will Not Grow, and the neons, but after some thought I realized that I don't want another biggish aquarium taking up space. Mom gave me money to buy an aquarium because she didn't know what I wanted ("what's a 20 gallon breeder?" "A long." "What is it?" It's... it's a 20 gallon aquarium! That's long instead of tall!) so by the time my birthday rolled around, Petco wasn't having their dollars per gallon sale, and now that I know they have it I cannot justify more than $20 for the glass box. If I wanted the tank, I'd have to wait until Christmas and honestly I don't know if I do; Tiny Ram and Babyfish will just have to take their chances with the big kids.

Oh, who am I kidding. I will cosset Babyfish for all her little platy needs for the rest of her little platy life. Why I am so attached to a colorless, deformed fish, I cannot say.

***I had to explain who Meg was. Twice. Link because Meg is not up on the website. Dad was like "I haven't seen a Disney movie since Beauty and the Beast" and this is a lie, because I know he's seen Hercules, Lilo and Stitch, and Emperor's New Groove-- I know this because he didn't like any of them.