Today is My Birthday!

...and I'm gonna have a good time!

First off, I should point out that it's not just MY birthday today. I share it with:

Benjamin Franklin
Muhammad Ali
Joe Frazier
Jim Carrey
Al Capone
Betty White
Eartha Kitt (now THAT'S a Capricorn name!)
Vidal Sassoon
James Earl Jones
Maury Povich
Andy Kaufman (Cappies are noted for their twisted sense of humor...)
Michelle Obama (OK, now I like Barack just a little more than I did before.)
Naveen Andrews (Yes, there's a reason Sayid is such a hottie!)
Kid Rock
Zooey Deschanel
Maksim Chmerkovskiy (Dancing with the Stars--yet another Capricorn hottie!)
Dwayne Wade
Joshua Malina
...oh, and my sister Laurie!

The idea was to make a day of it--since Thursday is usually my day off. But the idea was thwarted a bit when my plan to sleep in was scotched by a 7 am phone call. Who the fuck calls at 7 am? Was it east coast birthday wishes? Nope. Someone from the Letterman show saying that if I was still interested in tickets, to call them back. I had submitted a request for tickets for my brother's upcoming--not realizing that unlike Leno and The Tonight Show, Letterman tapes his show in NEW YORK CITY. Yeah, I don't think we'll be making the taping.

The other part of the plan that got nixed was to catch a flick. I had a gift card for the Landmark Theatres, a free AMC ticket--surely there was a movie I could see on my birthday. Unfortunately, I have seen just about every film worth seeing over the last couple of weeks. So unless I wanted to catch a matinee of Alvin and the Chipmunks (I didn't...), I was out of luck in the movie department. Instead, I headed down to the beach for my big birthday gift to myself--a new tattoo. I hiked all the way out to House of Ink on the Venice boardwalk only to find my favorite tattoo artist, Teri, was not working today. Drats!

Still, I had a lovely day. Birthday greetings from my friend Ann Vanino as well as Tami, my boss Mitchell, my co-worker Elizabeth and an e-card from my co-worker Peter from someecards whose motto is "When you care enough to hit send!" My friend Hollie gave me a shout out on MySpace and my blogging buddy Elisabeth threw birthday cake at me and posted on my SuperWall via FaceBook. I got a $30 iTunes gift certificate from my fellow Capricorn pal John and a cute card from my other Cappy bud, Dave and his lovely wife Kat (on the front of the card, "Rainy days and morons get me down." Does Dave know me or what?!!!), Laurie sent an e-mail promising to call tonight as did my brother David.

Although I didn't get my tattoo today (going back on Sunday!) or see a movie, I did get some shopping in. Gap is having a sale with an additional 25% off the markdown price. I got a red cashmere sweater for $28, a pretty ivory cardigan for $22.50 and a black polar fleece pullover for a little over $5! Then I got an additional $15 off with a Happy Birthday discount coupon, used the balance of a gift card I had and ended up shelling out less than $15 for all three things!

It was gorgeous and sunny in L.A. today. I got to take a nice long walk and see the ocean. Now I'm gonna kick back, order a small pizza, scarf down a couple chocolate covered peanut butter treats thanks to my sis, watch Ugly Betty and download me some iTunes! All in all, a pretty decent birthday...