Twenty-seven
I had a really great 27th birthday. It was the best birthday I can remember having for a long time because I actually went out and did something.
At work, I requested an ice cream cake (screw you, diet--what's the point of life if I can't even have ice cream on my birthday?) and the actual cake was even better than I imagined. With the previous director, we always had these amazing Dairy Queen ice cream cakes--solid ice cream with frosting on top and little chocolate cookie crumblies. Nothing fancy, really, but DELICIOUS. That was all I wanted, but the owner got a Dairy Queen ice cream Blizzard caramel brownie cake and maybe it was just the long hiatus from sugar/ice cream, but HOLY SWEET DAMNATION THAT WAS THE BEST ICE CREAM CAKE EVER.
Work went so smoothly and nicely and there was ice cream cake.
I wanted friends to go out with me on my actual birthday. My actual birthday fell on a Friday this year and usually I only celebrate my birthday with family, on the closest weekend. So I got Caroline and two work friends to go to the Gangsters Dueling Piano Bar--one of my favorite places--with me for food and drinks. I wore my beautiful new Banana Republic dress (slinky, drapey, navy blue, and $10 at the Gap Outlet because it had a split seam which I repaired myself), which I'd been looking for an excuse to wear. I had a salad and some chili (both things I don't eat, at least not regularly, because of my diet) and two martinis. I got a little drunk and giggly. When the pianist found out it was my birthday I was summoned to the stage and he told me to sit on the piano, which I did, and he sang me a dirty song about food. It was funny and I was delighted. And drunk. It was SO FUN. Then afterwards, after Caroline went home, my work friends laid around my apartment waiting for their ride telling me they liked my furniture (everything in my living room was either cheap at Goodwill or a yard sale, a hand-me-down from my parents or old bedrooms, or free off a curb), and vehemently telling me I needed Jif peanut butter (not natural, which is what I eat) in my mouse traps. It was funny.
Yesterday I was tired and grumpy and my eating patterns have been thrown off, but I had a nice little dinner with my family--lemon and ginger rice, lemon garlic chicken, asparagus, and an amazing vegan cake from Babycakes. My mom went all out for the ingredients and it was delicious! I am excited about saving it up in my freezer and allowing myself to eat it periodically.
Things I got for my birthday include a new graphics tablet (a Bamboo Pen; I installed it today and I LOVE IT), Drawing Down the Moon, the Charles Vess art book; Tale as Old as Time, the Beauty and the Beast art book; Whip It DVD, a promise to pay for paint for my entire apartment, a crockpot, a yoga DVD, a teapot, a magazine subscription, and a renewal for my Bust subscription.
Then my mom was getting rid of some stuff which she let me have. Really, the last thing I need is more STUFF, but I figure I can take it now and then get rid of it later should I decide to. These things include:
-A large packet of postcards in a bag dated June 13, 1971. Most of them are ugly; some are interesting; some have been written on (by my mom)
-A vintage stuffed animal pattern belonging to my grandmother before my mom was born
-A ridiculous bonnet my mom made when she was young--it smells funky and is ugly but I love the vintage fabric so intend to take it apart
-A bag of vintage sewing notions, mostly thread on wooden spools, some mysterious metal rings, and a little book that says "Instructions for using Singer Sewing Machine No. 66," dated May 1916. My mom still has that machine but uses it as a table.
-An amazing packet of antique papers that my mom took out of her roller-top desk when she was married to her first husband. Most of them are not interesting, but they are from the 1920s, receipts and envelopes that are inexplicably partly-burnt, and stuff like that.
-A jar of pieces my mom took off her roller-top desk--little pieces of wood, screws, random metal things
-A box of vintage sewing machine parts and notions. I liked the sewing machine parts because I fancied they looked a little steampunk.
I am so happy with all of my presents--the art books are beautiful eye candy, Whip It is how cool and badass I wish I could be, the crockpot is amazing, and I can't wait to start playing with my new Bamboo Pen.
The tablet is much smaller than my old one, but it was the cheapest one. It came with extra nibs! I am really excited.
The Beauty and the Beast book is full of notes and amazing drawings and paintings. My favorite drawings are by Chris Sanders (I had no idea he worked on that movie and I love his work!), Andreas Deja and, of course, Glen Keane. The Charles Vess book is also beautiful; his work is so vivid and I love illustration. And I'm psyched about the yoga DVD!
I love the sewing machine parts. I wish I were going to the World Steam Expo (this is not a link to the WSE site but to the Multiculturalism for Steampunk blog entry about it, which convinced me I should go even though I knew I couldn't) and I could bring along all these crazy metal things and make a steampunk costume and be an airship navigator or something.
(Dude, the World Steam Expo looks amazing. On my list of Things I Would Do If I Had Money are that, the Sirens Literary Conference, and SPACE in Columbus. And, once she is settled, visiting Caroline wherever she happens to end up.)
Now I want to make a shadowbox or something out of my new vintage sewing doodads, especially the metal parts. I LOVE shadowboxes and I’ve been dying to make some.
...then later today I discovered this: the Time Traveler's Ball. STEAMPUNK + SOUTHGATE HOUSE = WIN. I am sooooooo going to that.
Today I wrote, drew, played video games, installed my Bamboo Pen and tried it out, did some laundry, and cleaned my pants shelf in the closet. I didn't do the dishes or make soup like I wanted to, or clean the many other things that need to be cleaned. Whatever. I also wondered how I could make a steampunk costume without having to buy or sew a lot of stuff. (This is probably my favorite steampunk costume. That is just so effing cool.) Ideally I would be Scottish (because my heritage is English, Irish, and Scottish and English steampunk is overdone and I know next to nothing about my Irish heritage)...but I'm not a terribly Scottish person.
This bears thinking about.
Today's wordcount was somewhere around 1200, in Varenta. I was pleased with it this time.
At work, I requested an ice cream cake (screw you, diet--what's the point of life if I can't even have ice cream on my birthday?) and the actual cake was even better than I imagined. With the previous director, we always had these amazing Dairy Queen ice cream cakes--solid ice cream with frosting on top and little chocolate cookie crumblies. Nothing fancy, really, but DELICIOUS. That was all I wanted, but the owner got a Dairy Queen ice cream Blizzard caramel brownie cake and maybe it was just the long hiatus from sugar/ice cream, but HOLY SWEET DAMNATION THAT WAS THE BEST ICE CREAM CAKE EVER.
Work went so smoothly and nicely and there was ice cream cake.
I wanted friends to go out with me on my actual birthday. My actual birthday fell on a Friday this year and usually I only celebrate my birthday with family, on the closest weekend. So I got Caroline and two work friends to go to the Gangsters Dueling Piano Bar--one of my favorite places--with me for food and drinks. I wore my beautiful new Banana Republic dress (slinky, drapey, navy blue, and $10 at the Gap Outlet because it had a split seam which I repaired myself), which I'd been looking for an excuse to wear. I had a salad and some chili (both things I don't eat, at least not regularly, because of my diet) and two martinis. I got a little drunk and giggly. When the pianist found out it was my birthday I was summoned to the stage and he told me to sit on the piano, which I did, and he sang me a dirty song about food. It was funny and I was delighted. And drunk. It was SO FUN. Then afterwards, after Caroline went home, my work friends laid around my apartment waiting for their ride telling me they liked my furniture (everything in my living room was either cheap at Goodwill or a yard sale, a hand-me-down from my parents or old bedrooms, or free off a curb), and vehemently telling me I needed Jif peanut butter (not natural, which is what I eat) in my mouse traps. It was funny.
Yesterday I was tired and grumpy and my eating patterns have been thrown off, but I had a nice little dinner with my family--lemon and ginger rice, lemon garlic chicken, asparagus, and an amazing vegan cake from Babycakes. My mom went all out for the ingredients and it was delicious! I am excited about saving it up in my freezer and allowing myself to eat it periodically.
Things I got for my birthday include a new graphics tablet (a Bamboo Pen; I installed it today and I LOVE IT), Drawing Down the Moon, the Charles Vess art book; Tale as Old as Time, the Beauty and the Beast art book; Whip It DVD, a promise to pay for paint for my entire apartment, a crockpot, a yoga DVD, a teapot, a magazine subscription, and a renewal for my Bust subscription.
Then my mom was getting rid of some stuff which she let me have. Really, the last thing I need is more STUFF, but I figure I can take it now and then get rid of it later should I decide to. These things include:
-A large packet of postcards in a bag dated June 13, 1971. Most of them are ugly; some are interesting; some have been written on (by my mom)
-A vintage stuffed animal pattern belonging to my grandmother before my mom was born
-A ridiculous bonnet my mom made when she was young--it smells funky and is ugly but I love the vintage fabric so intend to take it apart
-A bag of vintage sewing notions, mostly thread on wooden spools, some mysterious metal rings, and a little book that says "Instructions for using Singer Sewing Machine No. 66," dated May 1916. My mom still has that machine but uses it as a table.
-An amazing packet of antique papers that my mom took out of her roller-top desk when she was married to her first husband. Most of them are not interesting, but they are from the 1920s, receipts and envelopes that are inexplicably partly-burnt, and stuff like that.
-A jar of pieces my mom took off her roller-top desk--little pieces of wood, screws, random metal things
-A box of vintage sewing machine parts and notions. I liked the sewing machine parts because I fancied they looked a little steampunk.
I am so happy with all of my presents--the art books are beautiful eye candy, Whip It is how cool and badass I wish I could be, the crockpot is amazing, and I can't wait to start playing with my new Bamboo Pen.
The tablet is much smaller than my old one, but it was the cheapest one. It came with extra nibs! I am really excited.
The Beauty and the Beast book is full of notes and amazing drawings and paintings. My favorite drawings are by Chris Sanders (I had no idea he worked on that movie and I love his work!), Andreas Deja and, of course, Glen Keane. The Charles Vess book is also beautiful; his work is so vivid and I love illustration. And I'm psyched about the yoga DVD!
I love the sewing machine parts. I wish I were going to the World Steam Expo (this is not a link to the WSE site but to the Multiculturalism for Steampunk blog entry about it, which convinced me I should go even though I knew I couldn't) and I could bring along all these crazy metal things and make a steampunk costume and be an airship navigator or something.
(Dude, the World Steam Expo looks amazing. On my list of Things I Would Do If I Had Money are that, the Sirens Literary Conference, and SPACE in Columbus. And, once she is settled, visiting Caroline wherever she happens to end up.)
Now I want to make a shadowbox or something out of my new vintage sewing doodads, especially the metal parts. I LOVE shadowboxes and I’ve been dying to make some.
...then later today I discovered this: the Time Traveler's Ball. STEAMPUNK + SOUTHGATE HOUSE = WIN. I am sooooooo going to that.
Today I wrote, drew, played video games, installed my Bamboo Pen and tried it out, did some laundry, and cleaned my pants shelf in the closet. I didn't do the dishes or make soup like I wanted to, or clean the many other things that need to be cleaned. Whatever. I also wondered how I could make a steampunk costume without having to buy or sew a lot of stuff. (This is probably my favorite steampunk costume. That is just so effing cool.) Ideally I would be Scottish (because my heritage is English, Irish, and Scottish and English steampunk is overdone and I know next to nothing about my Irish heritage)...but I'm not a terribly Scottish person.
This bears thinking about.
Today's wordcount was somewhere around 1200, in Varenta. I was pleased with it this time.