Whoa.

Another year come and gone, and me, well, I still feel 29. Once in a while I have an, "Oh yeah, I guess I am older than you" moment, but usually I just do my thing and all is well.

I had a very special birthday this year--I was able to spend it with my family. This doesn't happen very often, since I live on the East Coast and (now) they're all out West. I got presents and a cake and everything! Pictures... well, they're on my camera and by now you know how that goes. I'll get a round tuit some day.

I was out west to see my lovely niece (yes, they're all lovely, so that's not really a good description) who just returned from her mission a couple weeks ago. She was giving a talk in church on Sunday and I wanted to be there. So I was. I flew out on Friday, had lunch with my Dad, his wife, and my niece (Danja and I had huveros? corn tortillas, beans, meat (we went with chicken), lettuce, pico de gallo, sour cream, and mexican cheese. delicious!), then went to Dad's house to see a cute email he wanted to show us but was unable to print. So we did that for him :) Then we went to Danja's house, and chilled. Not easy to do, it was over 100 degrees outside. I got to meet the newest member of the family, a little terrier mix named Lucy. By far my favorite dog that they've had. So cute. And 6 months old. So yeah, lots of energy. But she's small, so it's not intimidating when she jumps up on you. So Danja and everyone else had to leave that evening except for oldest nephe David. We watched tv and had Farmer Boys for dinner--fried zuchini. You may think I'm crazy, but I love fried zuchini dipped in ranch sauce. It was yummy.

Saturday it was again really hot so we opted to stay home and play with the little kids, my nephew Daryl's kids. Daryl had a football game (he plays for RCC in California) and his lovely wife Kristen and David went to support him. On my wonderful SIL's advice I stayed home (I do burn quite easily). (yes, I did get the acronym from Kristen). I got presents and a cake--did I mention that already? my youngest (in that family) niece took me to In-N-Out for dinner, which was just as yummy as I'd remembered. Can you imagine a fast food place that has proper portion sizes, few selections (hambergers, fries, soft drinks and shakes) and yet is one of the best, most popular fast food places in the west? It was so yummy. We had my cake when we got back. It was really yummy too (do I need a new word? I'll think about that). Then at one point I was tired so I went to take a nap, thinking I'd wake up by 7:00pm PDT. Nope. It was midnight when I finally woke up, so I got ready for bed and went back to sleep. I suppose I get so relaxed around family that I just can't stay awake? anyway, it was a very good day. I even got to talk to some people on the phone, my nieces and ex-SIL that live in AL and my good friend Tammy from my FOHI days. That was great. I'm going to have to be more forthcoming the next time I go to CA, so I can meet up with my old friends there :)

Sunday was great too. Got up, hung out, went to church where Danja gave a great talk. First quote: "Bishops are here to comfort the afflicted; missionaries are here to afflict the comfortable" Love it. It was a great talk, a couple of missionary experiences, lots of quotes, and she tied them all together beautifully. After church the whole family--well, ok, those that were in the area--got together for dinner, mexican themed. I had three servings of the enchiladas. I forgot how much I love enchiladas. I'm going to have to make them at home now. They're amazingly easy.

So I get home last night and my cat-in-hiding was still in hiding. My other cat decided she had to bite me. I'm thinking I still smelled too much like dog for her to be happy. Hopefully she'll get over that today, or I might have to limit her access to me, particularly at night.

happy birthday to me!

I have a little song running around in my head:

Happy Birthday to me
Happy Birthday to me
Happy Birthday, Happy Birthday,
Happy Birthday to me!

I bought some cake last night at the store, and I'm going to make dinner for me tonight and eat cake and ice cream (Ben and Jerry's Creme Brulee--oh, so yummy!)tempting to cut out of work early and go out to eat but I think I really should go to an HOA meeting this evening so might as well stay here).

I had a party of sorts, my friends had me over for games cookies and ice cream last Friday night (so fun!) and I got to go to the Ren Fest on Saturday with one of the same friends and her family. The 5-year old REALLY loved Fight School (I knew he would *g*) and I got to keep the 7-year-old for a while just me and her. That was very fun. We went to see Robin Hood, the Joust, and E Muzeki before wandering back towards the gate and looking through all the shops. I even bought two shirts from a Master Weaver. I'm going to have to get some more next time I go, I love them!

Sunday was normal--got up early enought, but then took a nap (I ask you, a NAP??? I AM getting old!) so I still was late to choir practice. Was starving by the end of church, but was fortunately assisting in Sunbeams and they had snacks so I didn't die. Got home (still starving) and had leftover pizza (from the night before--yum!) which is really good warmed up in the toaster oven, I must say.

Monday I had a raging headache by the time I got home so I didn't do a whole lot. I did manage to watch the three tv show premiers on NBC last night, though, and I liked them. Chuck was funny if a little predictable--loved seeing Jayne from Firelfy again (I know he has a real name but I forget it--oh yeah, he's a Baldwin). Heroes is going to be good this season, I can just tell. I love Hiro! I think he's my favorite! Journeyman was really good too--I wasn't sure if I would like this one or not, but I do. So my Monday night viewing schedule is now 'set' :)

Tonight after the meeting I'm going to come home and maybe watch Lincoln Heights. I mostly liked it last year, but I don't know about this year. It's basically a show about a family but gets a little scarey since it deals with them trying to make their neighborhood better (it's a really bad neighborhood--the dad is a cop and got a deal from the city to be able to afford a nice house there). Then I'm going to tape Eureka (sci-fi channel) and watch House. I never really know what to expect from House, but this year one of the (probably temporary) characters is supposed to be LDS, and I just want to make sure they do it right. Interesting that Mormons have been showing up on TV lately. Very. Even Gilmore Girls had a couple LDS references.

So nothing crazy, but I am in a much better mood than I expected. The Prozac musb be working *g*. I may go to dinner and a movie on Friday night, and go someplace where they sing to you for your birthday. I think that would be fun. Anyone want to come?

I wish the dots were pink...

got bored of my old template, tried to find something new, was thinking I wanted something pink or purple-ish, but there's not a lot of selection in that color. Someday I'll have to sit down and make my own template, but until then, there are dots. I just wish that they were pink.

Been busy at work lately. Lots to do to get ready for the Big Review coming up the first week of October. We have a final flip-thru this Thurs and Fri, which shouldn't take too long since we don't have to present our slides, just flip through them and mention the things that are new. Since I have a Red Risk to present, I got to present that part at yesterday's team meeting. Silly me, I included in that presentation information that I had recieved from the instrument teams. I wanted to make sure I had understood what they had told me. Some of the teams were very instructive and helpful. One of the instrumenters--and of course he had teleconned in so I wasn't even sure who he was--started nit-picking about the slides themselves. I finally told him that I wasn't going to update those slides because they were never going to be seen again. Sigh. We were finally able to move on, and I didn't get a lot of grief when I finally threw up the graphic of the timeline. I hope I handled that appropriately. It's hard to know since my boss wasn't there (he's at a conference in California this week), and I don't think anyone else would give me input on how I did. Although, I imagine that if I really screwed up, I would be taken aside and Talked To.

In the meantime, a Yearly Event is approaching that tends to make me more crazy than usual. This year is worse because it's a Milestone Event, and I always promised myself I'd stop being smart-alec-y about my age on this particular milestone. Yes, it's my birthday. Always dificult because my family is usually far away. I have three sisters that remember me on my birthday (and I remember theirs), and if I'm lucky my Dad will send something before the end of the year, although since I did see him in July we can just count that. My brother already wished me a Happy Birthday, and I've even recieved a couple of cards (more if you count the stores that are giving me discounts if I spend my birthday money in them). It's also a reminder that it's one more year closer to the time when I will never be able to have children. In a way it's like a little death every year.

This year seems a little worse, because this year I leave the 30's behind forever. I feel like I should have a party, but I don't know when I could have it, and it's weird throwing a birthday party for oneself. I suppose it would be ok if I told everyone not to bring presents, otherwise it just seems lame. But if I did have a party, I would have two cakes. The first would be a tombstone with something like "RIP 30's" on it, and the second would be a celebration cake with lots of sprinkles and curlicues, "Forty and Fabulous". And I would invite Everyone. My poor house would be too small to hold everyone, but I'm sure only about 10 people would show up anyway. Well, maybe more. I did have quite a few people come to my open house last January.

So if I seem mopey over the next week or so, now you know why. Once I get out of my poorme stage, I'll be more cheerful again I promise. In the meantime, I'll just try to distract myself. Shouldn't be too hard this weekend, since My Friend and her three kids are braving the Renaissance Festival with me! It is Adventure Weekend, so that should be very diverting :D

And in the meantime, there are dots. Even if they're not pink.