It was actually a nice day.

So, for the first time in 7 years, my birthday was uniformly great. I heard from all sorts of people who I love and adore, and some who I hadn't heard from in a loooooooooong time, and Someone Who's Real Cute baked me a yellow cake with chocolate frosting. No one has baked me a cake since I was like 5 and it was so sweet and also tasty. He also got me this and we played with it, shot a roll of film and dropped it off to be developed. However, I had no idea how expensive printing it is! The film is medium format and there are 12 or 16 shots on a roll, depending, and it's $20 just for a contact sheet, and even worse, $3 for each print. EACH! So I told the guy in the camera shop to just develop the negatives. The camera is finnicky, has a ton of light leaks, perhaps most importantly the entire back fell off of it at one point. So it's possible that nothing will come out. Which would be sad. But I have lots of film and I am really excited to learn how to use this camera and make real photos with it. I'm thinking about taking it to Israel, I think it would be a good thing. I am also thinking that turning my bathroom into a darkroom would be a reallllly good idea, considering the price of developing, etc. At least I could process the film on my own and then decide what to print. Finally, having no window in my bathroom has a benefit.

I normally hate my birthday for understandable reasons, but I really took efforts to turn that around, and I think that it actually paid off. Mind over matter, I suppose. To further that point, I'm actually having a party this year. I am a small bit nervous that no one will come, a point being furthered by a possibly imminent transit strike, but even if there is a strike I am hoping that no matter who comes it will be a good time. Even if it's a small party, a party is a party and it will be fun. I am trying to keep a good outlook on these things. I think I just am thinking too hard about it because I am bored. Someone recently told me that they think it is harder to be bored at work than to be busy and engaged. I would certainly agree with that. But next Tuesday will mark one year since I started this job, and hopefully things will begin to work for me as I'd like them to here.

Here's to another year, I know this one will be even better than the last.