What a stellar day. I don't even know where to begin.

Yesterday was a milestone birthday for me, and it was a great one. I have no qualms moving into this new age, and seeing where it takes me.

My boyfriend was here and my family came up and the day was full of chaos, laughter, hugs, good wishes and excitement. Emeralds are my birthstone and I've never had emeralds. Well, I do now and they're beautiful. I love them. I got a gorgeous artisan bracelet that reminds my sister and I of brilliant hummingbirds caught in a net -- it's really funky -- cherry trees and sorrel -- yay! -- and a huge family heirloom desk (seriously, it's big enough to be an operating table) and all the New Jersey food I've been missing: garlic, onion and mixed bagels, whitefish salad, bruschetta, fresh handpicked strawberries that I just had with whipped cream -- YUM -- a Vinnie's pizza, and then we had carrot cake and frozen peanut butter pie with a Nutter Butter crust, and the many candles made a huge smoke cloud in the room and we couldn't stop laughing the carrot cake looked like a forest fire.

One thing I wanted to do for this birthday was have a photo portrait taken. The last one we had done was a family event at least twenty years ago, and I figured it woul dbe a cool thing to do. Paul Pinaha, who is a fabulous photographer, took plenty of shots in the limited time we had and here are just a couple of them:




 

I also did an interview over on Hooked on YA Books and that was a lot of fun, too. Thanks Alexa, and a belated happy birthday to you, too!