The birthday party was great. A bunch of the people who were supposed to come never showed. Because Chantel was upset about their failure to come, the lake idea was scratched, and we had the bonfire at a friend of a friend's house instead. I made new friends at my own birthday party, and I got hugged about a million times, and it was all very novel.

Chantel and I have this ongoing "emo kid" inside joke; she has declared herself the "headbanger kid" and her boyfriend the "goth kid," and she can't decide if I'm more of an emo kid or a mod kid. She had a huge emo kid theme, and it was absolutely adorable. She made little posters and decorated a gorgeous cake that Trisha's mother made for me (from scratch, no less). Everything was emo themed; we played Bright Eyes in the background. The plastic forks each had one tine broken off, as they were emo forks and were therefore "broken inside." Everything was black and white (Chantel knows I'm obsessed with b/w and stars). The balloons were black stars, and each had a card that read "Hope dangles on a string like slow, spinning redemption." ("Vindicated" is my jam-out radio song of the moment.) Everything was adorable. I loved it; I nearly cried. Nobody's ever done anything that elaborate for me.

I also got hit on something fierce; a friend of a friend decided he'd taken a liking to me. Being as he showed every single sign of being an only-temporarily-adorable manipulator, I kept my distance. Yes, I flirted back a little, but only enough to be polite. Eventually, he must have gotten more aggressive than I thought (I never felt threatened), as Chantel went into serious Mother Hen mode. She took him aside and gave him what must have been a pretty stern talking-to, as he backed off after that. (I imagine the words "If you hurt Mookie, I'll kick your ass" came up. She tells that to any guy who even looks at me, and she's serious; I've seen her hit guys who said the wrong thing about me. She's very protective of me ever since she overheard some guy refer to me as "fuckable." I like to give the benefit of the doubt, and I am a prime target for the Manipulative Type, so I appreciate the guardianship.)

So, anyway, I had four of my closest female friends there and two of my guy friends there, and it was great. The rest of the people were acquaintances who came along or people I met that very day (including the guy who hosted the bonfire--thanks, by the way). Chantel had decided not to tell me the promised guest list because she was afraid I'd be sad when some didn't show. She was a little right; people I had expected weren't there.

God, it was a nice birthday. It's been so long since I've had a decent birthday. Kudos to my friends.