"It's my birthday, and I'll cry if I want to..."

The first glimmers of daylight made their way into my consciousness at eight o'clock this morning. I guessed - rightly, as it later turned out - that it was a text from Hannah that was making my phone bleep.
I snuggled down and went back to sleep. My mother woke me up again at nine, with a kiss and a birthday card. I found the card hugely amusing - it doesn't have a sweet sixteen badge - it has three badges, little customisation ones:

"I'm busy."
"You're ugly."
"Have a nice day."

They're going on the bag!
I got a happy birthday text from Hannah and email from her too - I love her - and also an email and fic from lilka, whom I also love to death.

The house is quiet. I can't believe today is my birthday, and I'm sixteen today.
It seems so... well, old. I'm not old enough to be sixteen.
I was actually sixteen at five minutes past midnight. I'd been watching the last couple of episodes of the M*A*S*H fest (missed Hawk's Nightmare, dammit) and the last one finished at five to twelve. I went downstairs to where my mother was doing a reading exercise for IELTS.

I didn't say anything. She didn't say anything. I turned on the television very quietly, to see the time. I watched it carefully, and then froze it on 00.05.23.
My mother looked up and saw it. "Oh, so that's why you came down..."

She then looked at me and said, "You don't look sixteen."
"How old do I look?" I asked.
"Thirteen, fourteen..."

So I am in a gentle mood of happiness. It's my birthday, and it only comes once a year. The house is quiet and empty and I have to go to school and do a maths mock in a few hours, but I do not care in the slightest.

"When the first star you see may not be a star,
I'm not your star..."

As an afterthought - all beware, the mash-slash group have ( invaded Livejournal... )

All I wanted was...

It's been... wonderful. I feel loved. I never knew I had friends in so many places, online and offline.
People gave me cards and presents and fanfic and happy wishes, and that's all I ever wanted, so thank you everyone, especially everyone who commented on the last post. I was amazed by how many people commented!

My parents got home and even they had stuff for me.
So, because I want to, I'm going to make a list.
From Becca, I got -

• The Book of Useless Information.. She finally found it.
  
• Three bracelets, from her and her family.
  

From Bev -

Candles and candle holder, which were for my birthday.

A red duvet cover. I kid you not. This was her Christmas present for me, that everyone thought was so bizarre. I now see what they mean. Not that I don't like, quite the reverse, in fact. But still, oddness.

From Jane I got this. I loved it.

From my mother, I got:

A pretty red top.

An Emily Strange "I want you to leave me alone" top.

A red furry hat.

Avril Lavigne's album, Let Go.

A small scrunchie.

Several pairs of earrings.

A Subway sandwich! A footlong one!

And lastly, from Pedar -

• A pen. A Mont Blanc fountain pen, and it's tiny, barely longer than my middle finger. The inlay is silver and the nib is fine - and incidentally, that explains why he stole my pen a couple of days ago! He was confirming what type of nib I write with!
  

I am more than delighted. What more could any girl ask for?

Spencer Eldon

I love this book of useless information. Unusually, it has a whole bunch of stuff I never knew before. I'll have to read it from cover to cover before the next quiz - yes, I am in the team again. So far the team consists of me, lilka and Harriet, and the quiz is the first week of February.

I don't know why, but I've been keeping tabs of stuff I did know already. Like the fact there are eighteen hummingbirds to the ounce, and an ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain, and during World War II the Oscars were made of wood, and apparently Benjamin Franklin's most famous namesake was Hawkeye Pierce, and various other bits of information.

Some, I think, are too funny to be true - the scientific name for gorilla cannot be "gorilla gorilla gorilla," can it?

I never knew Kermit the Frog was left-handed, or that more Monopoly money than real money is printed every day.

And my favourite so far... if anyone can tell me who Spencer Eldon is, I will give them a prize of some sort. For general livejournal friends it will have to be my eternal gratitude, but for those real life folk, it can be a packet of Skittles.
Tell me, who was Spencer Eldon?