shake it off

I want a mulligan on my birthday, as it was the:

worst.
birthday.
ever.

why, you ask? (or maybe you didn't, but its my blog and i'll whine if i want to). Well for starters, there was the aforementioned contact from the ex (which by the way we're tired of calling her, so if you have a good idea on a nickname we'd love to hear it - eds.), the fact that my own mother didn't call me (how very 16 candles of her), the hail, and other assorted weird and unsavory things that continued throughout the 24 hours that was the 23rd.

That being said, I must thank all of you: old friends, new friends, site readers who I've never met, and friends that i thought i lost in the "divorce" for your well wishes and emails and drinks and cadbury's creme eggs that i received yesterday - they were lights in an extremely dark tunnel.

I resolve to consider my birthday the last day of a really horrible year (ok in all honesty the year wasn't all that bad save for those last 3 months, but hey, those have been crappy enough to negate any prior good). So today is officially the first day of a new year. It is also my last class in culinary school. Monday is my final exam. Tuesday I graduate. I begin my externship at Butter on the 11th. Change is afoot.