A freckle-faced redhead girl you want to know

Best birthday ever. This is where I recap how awesome it was.

First came the pith helmet, which you know. Something I forgot to mention was what my dad told me when I called to thank him for it. He said," Make sure you write your name in it so you don't get it mixed up with everyone else's pith helmet." I laughed so hard at that.

And that opened the floodgates. So many gifts. I feel so loved.

Next came the coolest bag ever. It's yellow and made to look like a "caution wet floor" sign. Then came the sock. My friend sent me a sock postmarked on the 12th, making it my third piece of sock mail. I'm so glad. Thanks to M and M2 who make work so much more enjoyable.

My birthday package from home contained Twizzlers, approximately 4 pounds of gummi worms from Winco, The New Adventures of Pippi Longstocking, orange tic tacs, birthday candles, balloons, a Bart Simpson figurine, a notebook full of graph paper, gift cards to Old Navy and Barnes and Noble, a threadless shirt, an I can Stencil Pirates! book, several weeks worth of comics from The Oregonian, and my favorite three berry blend jam.

Also,
-A and B sent me a card saying they'd bought me a cranberry farm.
-a girl in my ward gave me Andes mints and a card that said I did not look like a fat dinosaur.
-both F2 and Boney M called me and wished me a happy birthday.
-my roommate gave me a delightful card and several bars of candy.

Then the gifts from my party! I got
- edited copies of The Big Lebowski and Good Will Hunting from my cousins
- 2 boggle brain busters books from the Maoist
- a small can of meat that had a label taped to it that said Sugarman's from Little Pete
- a yoyo from Robert Poste
- Some Like it Hot and The Rescuers from M-Lite
- 7 boxes of jello from A and C
-a Cat Shtevens CD and the coolest scrapbook page ever from krebscout.
-a giant road atlas that I'm itching to put to use. Thank you Ahem.
-a New York Times touch screen handheld crossword puzzle dealy and all the supplies to make a whole lot of sock puppets. Thank you Optimistic..
-Superthug gave me an amazing card with a monster terrorizing a city on it.
-and a special gift from Uffish involved a goose and a golden W

Also, Ahem and krebscout made me the coolest cake I've ever laid both my eyes on, shaped like a windmill, complete with a small Don Quixote made from frosting. I've never been more impressed. And they were gracious enough to let me have my party at their apartment. It's a tradition I started last year, celebrating my birthday at krebscout's. When we're 78 she may finally be sick of me, but until that day comes I'm going to keep on throwing myself birthday parties in her house.

This birthday actually started in the grocery store after eating at Taco Bell, going to the Divine Comedy tech show, and watching Scrubs with some of my favorite people. And before that was the Happy Pirates show and Pi day, movie night, jungle gyms, 24, and back and back and back. I'm never able to separate out the events of my life - they all tend to run together making it seem as though this whole semester has been one incredibly long and fun-filled day. Halcyon is the word I want to use.

That's all really. I just wanted to show off how much people love me based on all the cool things they gave me, and to say thank you to everyone who came to my party. It was nice to see so many people from the old ward there. Thanks for making my 20th so special. I love you guys.

Also, today is my favorite holiday. Happy St. Patrick's Day!