Happy birthday to me!
I turned 19 years last Thursday on August 2nd, and now I'm finally officially back from my celebrations! Actually I was back yesterday, but I was so busy playing Baldur's Gate, writing, and recording Episode 2 of the Dead Robots' Society podcast that I didn't have time to make a post here about it. :)
Thursday was the big day, of course, and mom took the day off work so we'd have the whole day together. :) As a family we all went out for breakfast at the Waffle House, something I haven't done since I was very, very young. They had a couple of new people on the line so it was pretty chaotic and it was probably a good twenty minutes before we got our food, but it was still kind of fun. Unfortunately when we got home we found out that our dog, Bruno, had chosen this day to get in touch with his inner escape artist, so some of the morning's festivities were colored by having a hot, tired, filthy dog burrowing under our fence whenever we all left the house. But we managed.
After a short rest at the house, we struck out again and went to Triad Comics, which is quite possibly my favorite place in the entire universe. =D By extraordinary luck, they were having a wonderful half-off sale on all their $1.00 comics, so mom, dad, and I all camped out for quite awhile at their gigantic clearance table, sorting through stack after stack of comic books. Dad went on a Superman binge, mostly in the .25 boxes underneath the table where he likes to "hunt", and mom found herself a LOT of wonderful Batman comics up above on the 1.00 side of things. She even managed to halfway complete a series she'd started the last time we were there. As for me, I got many excellent things, ranging from Sailormoon to Fathom to Supergirl to Ghost in the Shell to X-men to the beginning of Witchblade: Shades of Gray, and the pride and joy of my comic collection thus far: First Born #1. (For the uninitiated, go here) Calling the art of this series "gorgeous" doesn't even begin to cover it, and I am thrilled to have a true first edition in my possession. =D
After comics we went to McKay (Knoxville's only dimensionally transcendental book store!) real quick so I could pick up a few more Agatha Christie novels, mostly because they're showing Miss Marple on PBS again and I'm thrilled about it. Unfortunately I couldn't find "Bertram's Hotel" like I wanted, which sucks, because even though I know how it ends now (after nearly two years of wondering thanks to an incomplete audiobook! *shakes fist*) I know they sometimes fudge the plots a bit (*coughSLEEPINGMURDERcough*) for the TV series and I'd like the original version. But OMG, Peter Davison sighting for the WIN!!! =D He was the crooked lawyer if any other classic Who fans were watching. He's always so hard to recognize, but there's no disguising that voice. Ha! Spending countless hours into those Big Finish audios does some good after all. He looks good for his age. And Tom Baker was on last week for "Towards Zero". That was awesome. Thought dad was going to faint. Of course they killed Baker's character like ten minutes in, but it was still nice. Now I want them to bring on Sylvester McCoy. Please excuse me while I attempt to build a mind control device to this end. =D
And, of course, there was Thai food. Yummy Thai food. And a new Fresh Market in Farragut that is HUGE, closer to the house than the one on nasty cluttered Kingston Pike, and they have CASABA MELONS. I have been looking for those since we left Columbia, Missouri. That's like six years of searching, people. Six years. Finally found them. HUZZAH! =D And they have many other wonderful things as well, such as sun dried tomato stuffed olives and Bistro Chips. Yummiest chips. EVER. And if you get bored looking for food you can snicker at all the old, fat, rich snooty people walking around, 'cause that's primarily what Farragut is made up of. Haha. I may be poor, but at least I walk straight and have a good rack sense of self, y'know? =D
Oh, and did I mention that I only spent about $28.00 on all the comics and books? Yeah. XD Triad rocks. The Daily Show rocks too, 'cause Jon had Matt Damon on as a guest for my "birthday show". Woohoo! No stuffy authors or politicians for me! Nope, I get Matt Damon. =D Hurray.
Friday, mom and I went clothes shopping. She gave me $100 as a birthday present and I decided to spend it on an entirely new wardrobe, which is something I've needed badly for about three years. We went to Wal-Mart, which was having a massive back to school sale, not to mention it was a tax free weekend, so no sales tax on anything. =D Did my birthday have good timing this year or what?! Anyway. I bought LOADS of stuff. Snarky shirts, three pairs of jeans that fit me wonderfully and to top it off, a black bra that does NOT make me want to set it on fire. (In fact it's quite possibly the most comfortable bra I've ever encountered) Right now I'm wearing my favorite outfit that I assembled: Black jeans that fit me like they were tailor made for my body and this shirt, which I bought with dad in mind. XD
Saturday I furthered my make over by getting my hair cut for the first time in months. Decided to keep it long-ish, but get lots of lovely layers. It looks wonderful, and Cindy had bunches of helpful styling tips. I've decided to start styling my hair more instead of just letting it air dry and hoping for the best. I might *gasp* actually spend time in the bathroom messing with my hair! What a shock! Maybe I'm a girl after all...mom got her hair done in the same style as mine, only longer, and I must say it looks lovely on her. Most of that nasty blonde stuff she had left over from her color days is gone now and she looks very nice. Layers are my new favorite thing ever. They just give your hair so much "oomph" without too much work or maintenance. It rocks. Next time mom gets a little extra money she and I are going shopping again for some different hair brushes and maybe even a curling iron. =D And maybe even PRODUCT. Liek OMG. Girl mode activate.
Sunday was spent watching movies and playing hours and hours of Baldur's Gate 2. =D Oh, and yelling at PBS for showing A Scandal in Bohemia instead of Miss Marple: Ordeal by Innocence. Not that seeing Jeremy Brett (♥!) back on PBS for the first time in years isn't wonderful and all, but we were all expecting Miss Marple and we were all pretty disappointed. Maybe next week. :)
Monday, as you know from the beginning of this monster entry, was spent doing some more normal things...but I have to say, after the past five days I feel like a totally new person. Amazing how much your outlook on the world improves when you've finally got some nice clothes that fit, a new hairstyle and some shiny comics sitting on your bedside table. (Did I mention that between the two of them, my parents bought a stack of comics they could barely carry for only $33? Yeah. Triad ROCKS.) So far, being 19 is pretty sweet. Now all I need is for a handsome alien to come pick me up because I've finally reached the average age most young girls are abducted by handsome aliens in time traveling phone booths. =D
Happy birthday to me!
Thursday was the big day, of course, and mom took the day off work so we'd have the whole day together. :) As a family we all went out for breakfast at the Waffle House, something I haven't done since I was very, very young. They had a couple of new people on the line so it was pretty chaotic and it was probably a good twenty minutes before we got our food, but it was still kind of fun. Unfortunately when we got home we found out that our dog, Bruno, had chosen this day to get in touch with his inner escape artist, so some of the morning's festivities were colored by having a hot, tired, filthy dog burrowing under our fence whenever we all left the house. But we managed.
After a short rest at the house, we struck out again and went to Triad Comics, which is quite possibly my favorite place in the entire universe. =D By extraordinary luck, they were having a wonderful half-off sale on all their $1.00 comics, so mom, dad, and I all camped out for quite awhile at their gigantic clearance table, sorting through stack after stack of comic books. Dad went on a Superman binge, mostly in the .25 boxes underneath the table where he likes to "hunt", and mom found herself a LOT of wonderful Batman comics up above on the 1.00 side of things. She even managed to halfway complete a series she'd started the last time we were there. As for me, I got many excellent things, ranging from Sailormoon to Fathom to Supergirl to Ghost in the Shell to X-men to the beginning of Witchblade: Shades of Gray, and the pride and joy of my comic collection thus far: First Born #1. (For the uninitiated, go here) Calling the art of this series "gorgeous" doesn't even begin to cover it, and I am thrilled to have a true first edition in my possession. =D
After comics we went to McKay (Knoxville's only dimensionally transcendental book store!) real quick so I could pick up a few more Agatha Christie novels, mostly because they're showing Miss Marple on PBS again and I'm thrilled about it. Unfortunately I couldn't find "Bertram's Hotel" like I wanted, which sucks, because even though I know how it ends now (after nearly two years of wondering thanks to an incomplete audiobook! *shakes fist*) I know they sometimes fudge the plots a bit (*coughSLEEPINGMURDERcough*) for the TV series and I'd like the original version. But OMG, Peter Davison sighting for the WIN!!! =D He was the crooked lawyer if any other classic Who fans were watching. He's always so hard to recognize, but there's no disguising that voice. Ha! Spending countless hours into those Big Finish audios does some good after all. He looks good for his age. And Tom Baker was on last week for "Towards Zero". That was awesome. Thought dad was going to faint. Of course they killed Baker's character like ten minutes in, but it was still nice. Now I want them to bring on Sylvester McCoy. Please excuse me while I attempt to build a mind control device to this end. =D
And, of course, there was Thai food. Yummy Thai food. And a new Fresh Market in Farragut that is HUGE, closer to the house than the one on nasty cluttered Kingston Pike, and they have CASABA MELONS. I have been looking for those since we left Columbia, Missouri. That's like six years of searching, people. Six years. Finally found them. HUZZAH! =D And they have many other wonderful things as well, such as sun dried tomato stuffed olives and Bistro Chips. Yummiest chips. EVER. And if you get bored looking for food you can snicker at all the old, fat, rich snooty people walking around, 'cause that's primarily what Farragut is made up of. Haha. I may be poor, but at least I walk straight and have a good rack sense of self, y'know? =D
Oh, and did I mention that I only spent about $28.00 on all the comics and books? Yeah. XD Triad rocks. The Daily Show rocks too, 'cause Jon had Matt Damon on as a guest for my "birthday show". Woohoo! No stuffy authors or politicians for me! Nope, I get Matt Damon. =D Hurray.
Friday, mom and I went clothes shopping. She gave me $100 as a birthday present and I decided to spend it on an entirely new wardrobe, which is something I've needed badly for about three years. We went to Wal-Mart, which was having a massive back to school sale, not to mention it was a tax free weekend, so no sales tax on anything. =D Did my birthday have good timing this year or what?! Anyway. I bought LOADS of stuff. Snarky shirts, three pairs of jeans that fit me wonderfully and to top it off, a black bra that does NOT make me want to set it on fire. (In fact it's quite possibly the most comfortable bra I've ever encountered) Right now I'm wearing my favorite outfit that I assembled: Black jeans that fit me like they were tailor made for my body and this shirt, which I bought with dad in mind. XD
Saturday I furthered my make over by getting my hair cut for the first time in months. Decided to keep it long-ish, but get lots of lovely layers. It looks wonderful, and Cindy had bunches of helpful styling tips. I've decided to start styling my hair more instead of just letting it air dry and hoping for the best. I might *gasp* actually spend time in the bathroom messing with my hair! What a shock! Maybe I'm a girl after all...mom got her hair done in the same style as mine, only longer, and I must say it looks lovely on her. Most of that nasty blonde stuff she had left over from her color days is gone now and she looks very nice. Layers are my new favorite thing ever. They just give your hair so much "oomph" without too much work or maintenance. It rocks. Next time mom gets a little extra money she and I are going shopping again for some different hair brushes and maybe even a curling iron. =D And maybe even PRODUCT. Liek OMG. Girl mode activate.
Sunday was spent watching movies and playing hours and hours of Baldur's Gate 2. =D Oh, and yelling at PBS for showing A Scandal in Bohemia instead of Miss Marple: Ordeal by Innocence. Not that seeing Jeremy Brett (♥!) back on PBS for the first time in years isn't wonderful and all, but we were all expecting Miss Marple and we were all pretty disappointed. Maybe next week. :)
Monday, as you know from the beginning of this monster entry, was spent doing some more normal things...but I have to say, after the past five days I feel like a totally new person. Amazing how much your outlook on the world improves when you've finally got some nice clothes that fit, a new hairstyle and some shiny comics sitting on your bedside table. (Did I mention that between the two of them, my parents bought a stack of comics they could barely carry for only $33? Yeah. Triad ROCKS.) So far, being 19 is pretty sweet. Now all I need is for a handsome alien to come pick me up because I've finally reached the average age most young girls are abducted by handsome aliens in time traveling phone booths. =D
Happy birthday to me!