Yesterday was my birthday. I'm a full 69 years old now. What??? It's kind of surreal. I have never been focused on my age. It has not mattered to me for anyone to know my age along the way. I found the "don't ask a woman her age" thing a bit silly, but that's just me. Of course my body shows the normal changes, but on the inside, I don't feel any different than I did when I was in my 30s. Sure, I've learned a lot since then, the good and the bad of it, but who I am, the real me, is the same as I always have been.

I took yesterday off of work. Our company added a floating holiday last year, so I took my birthday as a holiday!

I had a very pleasant day and spoiled myself all day long. My Sisters and I are meeting at Mom's for lunch today. One sister could not do it yesterday, so it was planned for today and that left yesterday open for me to do as I pleased.

(There is always some sort of art going on in the background. Here is an odd piece I conjured up. Mixed media, paint and collage. It's got some grunge and I like it.)

When I got up yesterday, I took a slow random morning with coffee, a light chore or two and some art video watching. I had no plan.

(This shows some of the random collage base before I added orange, yellow & black inks and doors and windows cut out from books,)

I wasn't sure yesterday if I was going to leave the house or just hang around here and play at my art table all day. Eventually I told myself I needed to get out, but I didn't really need anything. I decided to go thrifting since I consider that fun. I went to Goodwill, which is my favorite thrift haunt because it is close to me. After that, I also went to our local Hospice Thrift store.

(All of the following art are the tiny collages from my 4x4 tiny collage tablet.)

I had a good time in those two places. I found a few books I hope to be able to use in my art along the way and a couple of other things. I mainly try to see if I can find anything to use in my art, conventional and not conventional. I try to really think over what I am choosing and although I do end up sometimes with a thing or two that is not about my art, I try to be really careful on that as I've been trying to DE-junk my house and I don't want to be adding back to that with anything I won't really use. It's a struggle, but a fun one.

I did find a few books and another thing or two, but not too much, which made it feel perfect. After I thrifted, I went to Starbuck's which was close to the second store and bought a small white-chocolate mocha with and extra shot of expresso and a bacon-smoked gouda-egg breakfast sandwich on a ciabatta roll. I know they are most likely frozen and nuked, but for some reason, I like them, so I treated myself .... being my birthday and all. It was a little more than mid-afternoon by then. I ate my sandwich slowly as I drove back towards the house and finished it while I was waiting in the drive-thru line at Walgreens to pick up some meds. It made waiting in line still pleasant. Then I continued to sip my fun coffee the rest of the way home.

After I got home, brought in my thrift finds and finished my coffee, I turned on the dishwasher, which was already loaded and began to settle in again. I always go through my thrift finds wipe everything down as I go through it and put it wherever it needs to go. Anything art related goes over to the art desk and waits for me to come back and sort it out. I also wipe all that down before I organize it.

Before that was completed, although I was still full, I decided I might need some birthday junk food for later, however, I didn't want to go out again. So... here's where the really spoiled part of me kicked in. I began to think I could have Walmart bring me whatever I wanted. I had signed up for their "plus" thingy last November because they had a half-price offer for a year. Since that is where I have my groceries and other stuff delivered from, I have already made the money back that I paid for that. It also meant I could still get an order before bedtime. I wasn't committed to it when I came to my computer to look around and see what it would cost me to do that, thinking it would be far too much for me to do on a whim, even if it WAS my birthday. Once I got started though, I put in what I wanted and I added a few more of my regular grocery items and I even added a little bit of paint. It was not a large order. I looked to see what they would charge me for an express order (within an hour and a half for delivery) Normally that is $20, but being a member, it would be $10 and of course I always tip the driver that delivers it.

Of course with all of that, it simply was ridiculous to do such a thing, even being the birthday girl.....until...... I remembered my brother had given me a giftcard for Christmas that I had forgot to use on my orders since then 😮 ....so you know what I am about to say, that's right, I got that gift card out, entered the info in and off went the order! It wasn't a large order, kind of smallish in fact, but they shopped it and got it here in 50 minutes. I was impressed to say the least and feeling quite spoiled. So later, when it was time for a one-woman party, I ate some chips and dip and later ate some conversation hearts, that's right, Valentine's candy....all while playing at my art desk. It really topped off a very pleasant birthday. OH! ..and all that delivery goodness cost me $15.03 and I'm totally worth that.

I think I did a very fine job of making myself feel special.

🤣 👑

I had previously chosen a local restaurant for today after taking everybody's schedule and quirks into consideration We were going to all meet there at 1, but yesterday evening, I got a message from my sister that my Mom was in a tizzy (she didn't say tizzy, but that is what it was) .... because Mom had seen on the news the warning about the Super Flu (as they are calling it now) was going around all over and to take precautions. My Mom is 91 and has had some issues lately and she is not sure if she gets the Super Flu if she would survive it. So she got in a tizzy because she was asking if we could pick up the meal and bring it to her house. My Sister, who like the rest of us is going to bend to Mom's tizzied state, then had to get everyone's order at the last minute, so she could call it in this morning and pick it up on the way out to Mom's, which is completely across the county. How are you going to say no?? Impossible! So in a little while I will get myself ready and head out to Mom's for lunch instead.

Things change....sometimes on a dime.

Ok... that is all for now. Hope you are all doing well and that you spoil yourself once in a while.

Love you!

Jacey