July 1 My Birthday

I had a wonderful birthday. I woke up at 6am with a headache and a watermelon on my bed. The watermelon had a big fat orange bow around it. I fell back asleep and woke up at 10, got dressed in a red flowing dress that was laid out for me (!), and took my watermelon to the bakery so I could chop it up. Heddles chopped half of it up for me and put it in a huge bowl. I went outside and sat in the grass with my bowl of watermelon slices. I contemplated walking the labyrinth but there were people there and it occured to me that it was the perfect time to go to the lake and swim. I went and bathed in the sun and read some Sedaris and swam and felt cradled by mother, again and again. On the way to the lake I spoke with my birth mom and on the walk back I spoke to my art mom, Dr. Mehr, who I thought of as I ate one of the daylilies off of the crown of daylilies that Ellen made for me. After I chatted with Dr. Mehr there was a DELUGE of birthday hugs as I entered the building. I felt like a princess. I ate lunch and Zeek escorted me to my room where I met up with Carly. Carly gave me a loving massage that afternoon. After this we polished off the watermelon. Then I bathed and sauna-ed and had my aura photographed. The aura was Red, Pink, Purple, and Indigo, with blue and white down my arms. The pink was over my belly where I had some self-loving henna applied to myself. I felt validated, as I felt the combination of grounded color (red) , elevated color (purple), indicated a balance of both realms, and pink is of course a combination of red and white, earth and sky. I rushed to dinner because I was late and I ran to set my things down and the first empty seat I saw and a table filled with friends. In my haste I forgot why it was so crowded--suddenly I was blasted with a very lively rendition of the happy birthday song. Hedley made me a beautiful and delicious raw blueberry cheesecake. Ellen showed me the card she made, it was a dreaming crab. She had all my friends draw dreams for me in the thought bubble. I got very verklempt--it was one of the most thoughtful things anyone has ever done for me. Then I announced that I wanted to have a dance party that night. After dinner I got an acupuncture treatment. Then the dance party, which was tame, but fun. Towards the end, the Beck song 'Deborah" played and I made everyone in the room slow dance with me. Afterwards, Cassie, Sarah, Ellen and I got tea and snuck into the hot tub. It was a special, wonderful birthday, full of whimsy and also structure. When someone asked me what I will do in my 26th year, I instinctively responded, "Make Money." Time for me to take my tools into the world.