My birthday weekend

I've decided that tomorrow will be the day I "celebrate" my birthday (in the sense of opening the cards/presents I've received...and I have two unopened presents plus a couple cards, and if anything comes in the mail today, that will be more.) Also, I am going to the "big" grocery store (Kroger) today and am going to think if there's anything special (Oooh, I know...if I can find good short ribs I could do slow-cooker short ribs) I want to cook for my dinner.

I did open one of my presents early. It wasn't something I was expecting...I came home Friday to a big box on my front step. At first I thought maybe it was the present my parents were sending me (Because of a mix-up, the order for the Valentine's present was LOST by the company processing it, so my dad had to re-order, and in the meantime, what was SUPPOSED to be my birthday present came, and thinking it was the Valentine present, I opened it....it was an immersion blender, which I had asked for and am very happy to get. And the birthday gift will be a surprise because he didn't really tell me what it was)

Anyway, I thought the big box might be my birthday present, but then, I saw that it came from somewhere in Arizona, and my dad had told me the birthday present was coming from Pennsylvania. And then I thought: wait, I ordered something from Superbuzzy, could that be it? But aren't they in California?*

So I picked it up - finding it to be very light, I thought, eh, could be the couple pieces of fabric I ordered. So I opened it.

(*The Superbuzzy stuff came later, with the mail. I haven't opened it yet, figuring I could save it for tomorrow).

It turns out the big light box was a birthday gift from one of my faithful blogreaders - something off my Amazon wishlist but which I never expected to actually GET as my family tends to be more into the practical kind of gifts.



It's a narwhal! A giant Squishable narwhal! I was really surprised and happy when I saw him in the box (yes, I decided almost immediately it was a "he"). Very big and huggable and the kind of thing that feels good to just press to your chest after you've had a bad day. (Or at least I find that comforting to me. As I've said before, the various stuffed animals I have are "pet substitutes" - I do not think my allergies in their current state would allow me to have a furry live pet (and also, unless it was a box-trained pet, I couldn't always get home for "walkies" in time). The other nice thing about the narwhal is he's the right size and shape to put on your lap and prop a book on to read.

So, thank you so much!

I did name the narwhal last night...a few names bounced around. I thought of Spike, seeing as he has one on his forehead, and then Blue, because he's sort of a blue color. But I finally decided to nod to my childhood tradition of giving odd, overly-formal names to my toys. So his name is Mr. Prince Turveydrop, after the character from Bleak House (and that is one of my favorite Dickens-invented names ever).

But I don't think he runs a dancing school.

So it was definitely a good start to my birthday weekend. (Also, I got the house all cleaned up, save for taking the accumulated boxes to recycling, so that makes me happy too)

***

Also, I did successfully renew my license. I was told by the jovial man at the desk of the Tag Office, "If you're renewing within 30 days of the expiration you're good; otherwise you have to shake hands with Homeland Security." I don't know what he meant by that but it sounds like something I don't want to experience.

Also, when I went back to get my (awful) picture taken, I saw one of my former students! He was manning the computer that processes all the stuff (so he now knows what I (claim to) weigh and what year I was born in...). He told me he was working at the Tag Office because he needed a job - he had been working in his chosen field for a large business as the environmental guy, then they started asking him to do things that he believed to be unethical (and if he reported them to me accurately, he was definitely right) so he quit. He said: "It kind of stinks because the money was better than what I probably could have made elsewhere" but it makes me feel good that he was unwilling to sacrifice his ethics (some of which stemmed from things he learned in our classes) for a bigger paycheck. He did mention wanting to go to grad school and get a Master's degree so he might be able to get a better job...which I think would be a good option.

So now I'm good for four more years, and I don't have to worry about "shaking hands with Homeland Security." (Well, unless I decide to fly somewhere, or Amtrak becomes a lot more stringent about security than they are right now)