happy birthday!

ah. it was a lovely day. ch just kept surprising me all day with gifts. first it was melagros, little mexican charms, for me to be creative with- i think i'm going to sew them in my hair. then, what a surprise, a copy of the poem he wrote for my birthday last year. i was in new york city, cory had just taken me to the "picasso to pollock" exhibit in the guggenheim, and ch called and recited this poem he wrote on my voicemail. i found the scrap of paper it was written on. then it was lost, and i didn't think i'd ever see it again. but he wrote up a nice copy for me, with his photocopied picture. it's so charming- i'm so touched someone wrote a poem about me. then, later, as if that wasn't enough, he gave me a copy of Tales of the City, which i've been trying to borrow from him and read for awhile. we usally don't like the same sorts of books, but so far this one seems great. oh, and he bought me a chocolate bar while i was doing the day end reports. it was a beautiful, beautiful end of summer day. was listening to stacy's i left that wild side long ago mix, walking down 53rd st on my 24th birthday. and the sun was shining, and my skirt was flowing and the world was a lovely place. i bought myself indian food and went back home to eat it. then to get ready. disaster nearly struck as i dropped my eyelash adhesive down the sink, never to be returned. luckily, my new purple glitter false eyelashes were stuck to the container with adhesive, and that proved to be enough to attach them. the "glitter blood" was rather lame. not quite hedwig quality glitter, and it was really dry- needed gloss over top. and my new shoes broke as i was moving around the house, so it was big black boots for me. which was fine, i'm more comfortable in them anyway, but so sad not to be able to premiere my south street shoes. in spite of all this, i was still ready enough before the girls came to paint my fingernails purple. anyway, gabrielle picked me up and she and her flatmates carolyn and and helen told me how glamorous i looked, and we went off to the lepard lounge. it's in bucktown, lots of leather upolstry and 20s and 30s erotica and porn decorating the walls and playing on the tv. loud music of all sorts- first jazz then dusty springfield then some hard dance thing- it was crazy. we settled on our lepard possets in the corner and i drank "cat naps" godiva chocolate martinis with strawberries. it was like dessert. it was good times- was afraid it'd be awkward with the roomates, but conversation was good. they were going to drop me off at big chicks to meet ch &r, but they wanted to come in and meet them, and wow... i'm drinking, we're all dancing. i had lots of visions of my birthday under these false eyelashes, but none of them included dancing with carolyn at this packed boy bar... and you would think these guys were straight the way they go after gabrielle. what is it with those sensuous pheremones of hers? this short guy just honed in on her. then he puts me between the two of them and grinds the three of us together... i'm like, man, i don't think i'm drunk enough for this yet. ch &r and i hang out for awhile after the girls leave, and when they drive me home we stop at the same tacoria in boystown we went to the first time i went to big chicks. (if you're chicagoian, don't ask why rafael drives through boystown when going from andersonville to hyde park.) ch keeps kidding me about how it's not my birthday anymore, so i guess after midnight i don't get my special privleges. i'd peeled off my purple eyelashes and crawled into bed by three. killer birthday.