Happy Birthday to Me!

At midnight I officially turned into an old woman. I should have gotten my acceptance letter to Hogwarts 12 years ago and I should have found a secret wardrobe somewhere in the world sometime before that.  Alas, none of that happened (I'm still waiting for an owl carrying a Hogwarts letter though).

My 21st birthday! I can't believe that was two years ago.

Over in the real world, I'm celebrating my birthday like a normal 23 year old, I think. If anyone cares about my day to day life, I had a combined family birthday party with my dad on Monday.  I received some money and gift cards (Old Navy, Bath and Body Works, Sephora, McDonalds (perfect for my road trip to Iowa!) and Nordstrom's) plus a couple of other gifts. It was a lovely evening and I definitely enjoyed my double layer cookie cake (who knew they made those?).

Excuse the horrible picture, it was taken with a cell phone and I didn't take the lid off for some reason.  

Last night, we had an old school get together with a bunch of my friends and their parents, plus a softball coach of ours who moved to California awhile ago. I spent every weekend of every summer with these girls from the age of 9 to 17. It was so nice to see everyone again!

Today, my brother gave me a gift card to Half Price Books--expect to see what I buy in a following post!  Tonight, I'm going to Mad Mex for happy hour and dinner with some friends. It should be delightful!

Last time I was at Mad Mex.

On a more bookish note, so this post isn't completely pointless, I am in the middle of Grave Secret by Charlaine Harris.  It is the fourth book in her Harper Connelly series and I am enjoying this one a lot more than the previous ones in the series.  Hopefully this holds true for the rest of the book.  I still prefer the Sookie Stackhouse novels, though.  

Batch of Library Books 7/8/10

Wolfsbane and Mistletoe: Charlaine Harris, Patricia Briggs and others.  All short stories based on werewolves and holidays.  Should be an excellent read.

The Gates by John Connolly.  The gates to Hell are visible from the real world due to the miscalculations .  Saving the world is all up to a young boy, Samuel Johnson, and I am sure there will be some crazy things happening.

The Magical Worlds of Harry Potter: A Treasury of Myths, Legends, and Fascinating Facts by David Colbert:  I have been super into non-fiction stories (mainly about Harry Potter) lately.  I'm really excited to read this one.

Muggles and Magic: J.K. Rowling and the Harry Potter Phenomenon by George Beahm.  This goes along with the whole non-fiction thing above.

Pirate Latitudes by Michael Crichton.  I've never read a Michael Crichton novel, but I am excited to start.  This seems to be a pirates novel at its finest: adventure, atmosphere and action.

The Child Thief by Brom.  I'm actually kind of scared to read this one.  It is a twisted, adult version of 'Peter Pan' and even the cover creeps me out; however, the author worked with Tim Burton on 'Sleepy Hollow,' so I'm sure I'll like it.  It's a pretty massive book, but I do have a lot of trips coming up soon!

Not pictured in this batch is: The End of Harry Potter? by David Langford because, well, I finished it already.  It was so fun seeing which predictions he got right and which ones he got wrong for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

I just recently got a library card and I have definitely been using it to my advantage.  I am in the middle of Grave Secret by Charlaine Harris right now, but i will be getting to these shortly.