Holidailies -- Day 6

Today's prompt: What is the best gift you have ever given?

I've written about this before, so forgive me the repetition. But it remains my favorite gift-giving memory ...

When my niece was six, she was obsessed with the animated Anastasia. She could recite dialog and acted out scenes. She even had a dream in which she walked into an Anastasia store where she could purchase everything Anastasia for $100, and she had exactly $100 in her purse. I went on eBay and purchased Anastasia memorabilia from all over the world (my favorite: plastic Anastasia medallions that had been packaged in cereal boxes in Ireland to promote the home video release in that country). I spread them out all over my apartment and put a sign on the front door: Anastasia Store -- Everything $100. The look on her face when she came in the door, the way she clasped her hands together under her chin and looked around the room in wonderment at the Anastasia dolls and books and puzzles and pillowcase, etc. ... I'll never forget it. How often in life do you get to make someone's dream come true?

She's 21 now. I'm glad that she's happy at school and so in love with her fella. But sometimes I miss the little girl who laced her fingers under her chin when she was happy.

Happy Birthday to Me -- Part 8

I've worked til 7:00 or 8:00 every night, doing my own work and putting out fires. While I am stimulated and happy by my own projects, playing firegirl has been frustrating.

Thursday started out pretty crappy. After a drought, I'm drowning in work. My account team is more obstructive than helpful. Input that we received Wednesday morning was just given to me to implement Thursday at 5:30! And that's just the easiest incident to explain, and the final insult of a long week.

Which is why I'm glad my former boss/theater buddy Barb and I went out to celebrate my birthday last night. I drank too much, we both bitched about work, and I was amused to see how worked up she was by Obamacare. (She's not amused, though. She's very, very angry about the botched implementation -- as we all are -- but she's also upset about the inept construction of the law itself.) Barb is not usually concerned with politics, while I live and breathe it, so listening to her take was interesting. It also led me to conclude that the President is in deeper shit than I thought he was.

She gave me a set of iron kitty bookends. Beautiful and useful … and the heaviest gift I have received in quite some time. And I have leftover fettucine in my refrigerator!