When I am old I shall wear purple...

When I am old, I shall wear purple. And a red hat that doesn't go...

Yesterday was my birthday. I am not yet again to one of the big milestone birthdays, so I decided to just enjoy this one. I am normally very uncomfortable about my chronological age. I feel so much different that that age would imply. So, since this isn't one that everyone would know I just enjoyed it. I usually wear purple anyway, so actually wearing it wasn't a real issue. I did wear a cotton broomstick skirt over tights and let my hair hang down. I said I was letting my freak flag fly. I even wore sandals with the tights. I would have worn my birkenstocks but couldn't find them.

My present to myself is to put up my waterbed. It was taken down at the old house over a year ago and has been in storage. My housemate helped bring it up to the house and set up the frame for me. I will put the liner/heater/mattress in today and start filling it up. I must be getting my confidence back, 'cause I'm starting to think that I might actually want to bring someone home and it would be nice to have something other than a leaky air mattress to offer.

I put the spiced wine in the slow cooker in the morning with the bag of spices I got while in Salisbury at the winery. After several hours I transferred the wine into my large thermos and headed to Nancye's house for the Holiday/birthday gathering, wearing my skirt as I said. It was fun. There was crackers and many cheeses and some sliced meats and sweets. Patricia, Cathy, Melanie and Nancye's husband Bill were there and we had a nice afternoon talking and catching up. Their son Stephen came in for Christmas from eastern KY later and gave us all hugs hello. He has made that step from young man to adult somewhere in the past couple of years while I wasn't looking. I saw him at his sisters wedding in October, but hadn't really noticed it then. Nancye took some pictures of me sitting at the table and printed some out for my parents as Christmas gifts. She will email them to me, and one will become my picture here.

I have also decided that I will look into getting paid accounts here on my journals. I want to start posting pictures and maybe branch out a bit. I am growing and I'm feeling the need for room. The women gave me a hardback journal as a gift. Patricia made colorful drawings on the inside covers and they wrote quotes scattered throughout the book. I said that the randomness of the placing of the quotes was pushing me out of my techie, linear thinking about it. I wanted to say, but somehow couldn't, that it took the 'new' off so that I feel more free to actually write in it now. Nancye knows me, and that may in fact have been a very intentional thing.

So, today is Christmas Eve. I kinda want to go shopping. I have Mom's gift already and I want to go get Dad a can of nuts. The rest of the shopping is for me. I'll go to Mom and Dad's later. Then decide if I'm going to get up early and head to the Smokies and go for a day hike. The main thing I want to accomplish is filling the waterbed, though, so I'm playing it by ear.