Last night my family took me out to dinner. We went to a nice quiet Italian restaurant here in Plano. I ordered lobster ravioli for something a little out-of-the-ordinary and special. Not to mention a wee bit expensive. Split a tiramisu with Angie and her boyfriend, Brent, for a birthday cake. Getting older sucks. I miss thick chocolate cakes with cool icing and lots of birthday candles. Now my mom doesn't have time to do anything but work, so a birthday cake is out. Bah. We all sat around talking and eating for a couple of hours - it was nice to wind down like that - and I found out that not only was my great-grandfather, his wife, and my grandmother part of the freemasons/evening stars, but my mother is also. WHAT!? I've never known that about my mother. 21 years passed, and something like that was kept a complete secret the entire time. I'm amazed. It was like a moment of reckoning to find this out.

Tonight I'll be going with Amanda up to Oklahoma City to see Buck Cherry for the third time since Friday. We're going to celebrate my 21st like rock stars.  And I get to meet up with my friend Gilbert again! Yay! I think I'll try to get the rest of my friends together for Saturday night's show at Deep Ellum Live. Dooms UK and Corn Mo. The best of the local acts! It will be the greatest. Corn Mo said he could show me how to play accordion in fifteen minutes, so I think I'll ask him about it then.

Erin sent me a .wav file of Alex talking about dancing with death everyday and not being frightened. Okay. I'm cheered up. Alex James would want it this way. Get drunk, be a tart, enjoy yourself. Yes! That's it!

My friend Tammy took me to an Italian restaurant for lunch today. Chicken Parmigiana (my favorite food) and cappucino ice cream pie. Heaven. When I got back from my lunch break, my friend Karen had left a card on my desk next to a big bottle of Maximum Strength Pepto Bismol. Ahh. I love being the butt of every joke on my big day. Heh heh. But it's actually going to come in handy at some point, so I'm not going to complain about having anything nice to coat my stomach with.

Two years ago, I had a birthday party at home when my family went to Disney World. They left me over my birthday. I wasn't too happy. Erin's mom baked me a Mocha Mr. Bean cake, and that was cooler than anything, so it worked out okay. Last year I was in London. The year before both of those...I guess I went to Fuddrucker's with a bunch of my friends from high school and we went back to my house to hang out afterwards. When I was a little girl, I remember I died waiting for my birthday to roll around. I had the biggest parties we could afford, lots of friends, their brothers and sisters, and all the presents I could imagine. I'm glad mom made such a big deal out of it being "our" day. It was nice to feel really special at least one day out of the year.

Thank you to all of my sweet wonderful friends who wrote me birthday messages! Between suggestions of absinthe, clowns, Ewan McGregor, and near-poems, I'm one happy girl. I love you guys.