birthdays and fairy tales

Yesterday was my birthday!

As of sometime last evening, I'm 23, but maybe that doesn't feel like such a huge deal because the person working at the ceramics store near my work asked hesitantly if I was over eighteen when I requested an application for Marcus.

Also, I realized about a hour and a half into my workday that I had two different colored shoes on. To be fair, one was black and one was navy blue, so you could maybe see how at five in the morning I overlooked it when I was getting dressed?

Shoes aside, I had a birthday outfit actually planned (because, as previously established, I am not still a child on the inside despite my newly acquired status as someone in their mid-early-20's) that I was excited to show off. My job has a pretty strict dress code, but it mostly involves not wearing jeans and having your skirts be a certain length, so for the most part I'm in the clear. I do have to leave the burlesque-printed skirts and lower-cut tops at home, but summer is coming and soon they will see the light of day during my off time.

Anyway, here's what I was wearing--with matching shoes this time, of course!

A brief bit about the outfit in question before I get to the birthday fun--

For a really long time, I'd seen rave reviews about these "Dita cardigans" and wondered what the fuss was all about. For Boxing Day, I managed to find a site that had a few colors on sale, and I decided to go for it. While I agree with the general consensus that I probably wouldn't pay full price for just one (they run about $200, I believe? More if you're trying to find one that's been discontinued, in which case God help you because that gets intense), I love mine and I'm really glad I got them.

Then there's the skirt, which I personally can't get enough of. The detailing and the color combinations are just so eye-catching to me, and I have a fondness for anything related to fairy tales. Pinup Girl Clothing is my favorite lately for unique skirts, and they've turned me on to separates vs. dresses (I used to be much more in favor of dresses, as they do technically constitute a whole outfit and you don't have to worry about matching a top or something if you really don't want to).

Marcus took me out to dinner at Naked Pizza, where my dinner was free (funnily enough, not because it was my birthday, We go there so often I'd racked up enough points for a free small pizza!) We then went up the hill for frozen yogurt, and because I have a platinum Yogurtland card--try not to be too impressed with me for that accomplishment--it turned out I got up to 16 oz free as well. That was more than enough to cover some generous servings of their new flavors for both of us! I went with pineapple sorbet, because it tasted like a Dole Whip, and Marcus tried the cinnamon coconut. After that, we just walked around the mall for a bit to try to find a bridesmaid dress for me for an upcoming wedding. I had zero luck, by the way. Purple must be out this season, because they had literally every other color available.

However, we did find a preowned copy of The Wolf Among Us! We'd tried the demo a few weeks ago and loved it, and I'd been talking about wanting to get the full version soon to find out what happened next. If you're into RPG's (particularly the choose-your-own-adventure variety), you should give it a try. This is one of my new favorites! It's basically a bunch of traditional fairy-tale characters thrown into a modern-ish fictional part of New York, and you play the sheriff (a humanized Big Bad Wolf) who is trying to solve a series of murders. The last game I enjoyed this much was Catherine, which had a similar feel to it.

Marcus was also nice enough to surprise me with a copy of Pioneer Girl, which I'd been coveting since before I even knew it was written. I'd actually been looking for a hard copy recently, but they're incredibly hard to find. My local store got one in and I actually had it on reserve and forgot about it (to be fair, my mom had come into town that day as a surprise and that sort of took priority!) Marcus was paying attention and called in as soon as they took off hold for me and went in to get it. For any Laura Ingalls Wilder fans, it's a giant book that includes some of her original writing with extensive research and footnotes by Pamela Smith Hill. I grew up loving the Little House series, and as an adult I enjoy some of the later books even more than I used to. While I'm incredibly fond of the feel-good style of writing she uses in that series, I'd always been curious about her life and wished she would write something that included some of the more detailed, accurate depictions of her experiences. I'm only a few pages in and fighting the urge to skip around to my favorite parts from the books, but I can tell it's going to be a fascinating read.

Altogether, not bad for 23!

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