guingel | happy birthday to katie!

Katie is my twin sister :D

Yes. Today we are 17. Finally. Actually, I haven't been waiting for this day or anything. . . I just felt like saying finally. :D An' I can do that, cos it's my journal! Moohahaha! Ok, it's late at night and I've had a long day. I feel a little silly.

It was an excellent birthday, though! Yay!!! First, I finally saw Perin (

froggie115p)! Woo hoo! I thought she was leaving today for Penn, but no, she's leaving tomorrow. :D So she came over after driver's ed, and Zahra drove her over and she stopped by too, to wish us happy birthday.

And mom had made brownies, so we made icing for it. . . and then we used food coloring to make the icing red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet. Did you know that indigo isn't a color of the spectrum anymore? Yup. They got rid of it. Anyway, we had to wait a little to frost it, which was a difficult process, but it turned out awesome. And I have pictures XD Well, Katie does, on her digital camera. So we had a rainbow brownie cake, which is like, the coolest thing in the world! :D

There was also absolutely gorgeous weather, by the way. And my aunt called to wish me a happy birthday--and also my great-uncle in california, who i've met maybe once, so I thought that was really super nice. :D Warm fuzzies!

So we chilled with Perin and ate gummy frogs and what-not, and then David showed up and we headed off to the city. AKA Manhattan, for anyone who doesn't live on Long Island. We went to Dad's office for a pit stop and then wandered off to Chinatown. It was a lovely day, by the way, if a bit hot (and it's hotter in the city, but oh well). It was only around 5, so we stopped in a couple stores. Both, actually, on the same street as the restaurant we always go to, which is convenient. One of them I got a little Kogepan change purse. I was talking to

cloudtrader about him, and I just found out his story and he was on my mind. :) And at the other I bought candy! yay!
Dinner was good. I had sticky rice cakes for the first time, and they were vastly interesting. But I was happy that Katie had ordered them cos I couldn't eat too many at a time, they started to taste strange. I got steamed dumplings for myself.
Then, we bought more candy--at two different stores! :D It don't get any better than that! First, the Chinatown Ice Cream Factory. :) There were actually a whole lot of kids there--usually there's just one person. They seemed to be having a good time. And they had no accents, which was interesting. Anyway, I got a quarter of a pound of milk chocolate here, and Katie and Perin got 1/4 lb of green sour belts and sour gummy worms, respectively. Then we went to another candy store, which is the kind where you get a bag and fill it with all cool things. :)

After that we wandered all down Mott St. to the East Village, which was awesome because I don't think I'd ever been in East Village. We examined St. Mark's place, I think. Walked up one side of the street and down the other, going into three stores. Me and Mom and Perin went into this awesome African store, but didn't buy anything--all too expensive. It was sooo cool though! Really awesome statues, and pretty jewelry and scarves and all. And they labelled what country everything was from. It was a pretty store, too, and it smelled nice :) Then we went into this Tibetan store. And there, both me and Katie bought shirts! They're quite different, though. Also many pretty things in this store. Then we went to a comic book shop. It was dangerous in there--the floor was coming up! We kept tripping. lol. I actually practically fell into the store XD It was hard to find stuff cos nothing was organized at all. lol. Lots of cool things in there, though. I was itching to organize the comics, actually! XD Katie got the coolest, cutest Captain Marvel t-shirt! It has Cappy and Billy Batson!! SO CUTE! I'm going to have to borrow it, even though I'm not quite as big a Cappy fan. I saw a great SiP shirt, but they only had it in large. It was really funny, cos I was actually wearing my SiP shirt, which they also had. . . only it was medium, so we were able to use it to see that the large would look silly on me. Anyway, I ended up not getting anything, but oh well. I saw an interesting series. . . I can't remember what it was called! But it was by, like, the entire creative team of Books of Magic. I only could find 2/3 of the comics, or else I might have bought them. . . they were in the 50 cents each boxes!! But they were all written by John Ney Rieber, and the first one was drawn by Gary Amaro and Peter Gross, and the second was drawn by Peter Snejbjerg! O.o The three artists (and author, of course) who did BoM. So bizarre.

So then we headed home, and talked kind of loudly on the train. Not obnoxiously so, but enough that the people around us could have heard us. XD Oops! We were being very entertaining, talking about everything from transsexuals to tv shows that we watched when we were little. Hehehe.

And then we got home and did candles--we put one candle in each color, so there were six. And when me and Katie blew them out, I blew out 2 on my side, and Katie 2 on hers--so there were two left in the middle! :D Very nifty. The good thing about being a twin is that when everyone sings "Happy Birthday", you don't have to just sit there and feel silly--you get to sing to your twin! :) Actually, there are a lot of other excellent things about being a twin. . .
And then we did presents--I got Seven Brides for Seven Brothers from David!! YAY!! I thought Emily (

d3c3p7i0n) was getting it for me, but I was told she had been warned against this. lol. And he gave both of us This is Spinal Tap. Man, I had no idea what that movie was and I was sooo afraid to watch it for the longest time. Then I found out that it isn't some gory medical horror thing, it's a comedy! lol.
Dad got us all sorts of rocking comic book stuff! Including, but not limited to. . .
-Paradise too! collection! yay! I saw it in the comic book store and he had to tell me he'd already gotten it for us. Whoops!
-Hellboy notebook thingie! I also saw this, and was kind of toying with getting it, and I wanted it, but I figured I'd restrain myself since I'd already spent a fair bit that day, and the corner was messed up and I figured I'd get it online or something. And then I didn't have to! :D :D :D It has frogs on the pages, so I'm going to give a couple pages to Perin :)
-Big cool book about DC people. Characters, that it. Lol--i also saw this at that store. . . I guess they did have a lot XD and also wanted it and restrained myself! Wahey!! :D

It was an excellent birthday!! I was so happy to see Perin again, and I had an absolutely fantastic time in the city :D Great, great things happening!

. . . and my dad had sent me this! It's so sweet! :)

Hi. Uncle Alan sent this to me. I really liked it so I'm sending it to
you. Make sure that you don't stop after the first few paragraphs, but
read it all the way thorugh:

I have seen repeatedly the breakdown of
the cost of raising a child, but this is the first time
I have seen the rewards listed this way.

The government recently calculated the
cost of raising a child from birth to 18 and came
up with $160,140 for a middle income family.

Talk about sticker shock!

That doesn't even touch college tuition.
But $160,140 isn't so bad if you break it down.

It translates into $8,896.66 a year.

$741.38 a month, or $171.08 a week. That's a mere $24.24 a day!
Just over a dollar an hour. Still, you might think the best financial
advice says don't have children if you want to be "rich."
It is just the opposite.

What do you get for your $160,140?

Naming rights. First, middle, and last!

Glimpses of God every day.

Giggles under the covers every night.

More love than your heart can hold.

Butterfly kisses and Velcro hugs.

Endless wonder over rocks, ants, clouds,
and warm cookies. A hand to hold, usually covered with jam.

A partner for blowing bubbles, flying kites, building sand
castles, and skipping down the sidewalk in the pouring rain.

Someone to laugh yourself silly with no matter what the boss said
or how your stocks performed that day.

For $160,140, you never have to grow up.

You get to finger-paint, carve pumpkins, play hide-and-seek, catch
lightning bugs, and never stop believing in Santa Claus.

You have an excuse to keep: reading the Adventures of Piglet and
Pooh, watching Saturday morning cartoons, going to Disney movies,
and wishing on stars.

You get to frame rainbows, hearts, and flowers under refrigerator
magnets and collect spray painted noodle wreaths for Christmas,
hand prints set in clay for Mother's Day, and cards with backward
letters for Father's Day.

For $160,140, there is no greater bang for your buck.

You get to be a hero just for retrieving a Frisbee off the garage
roof, taking the training wheels off the bike, removing a splinter,
filling a pool, coaxing a wad of gum out of bangs, and coaching a
baseball team that never wins but always gets treated to ice cream
regardless.

You get a front row seat to history to witness the first step,
word, first date, and first time behind the wheel.

You get another branch added to your family tree, and if you're
lucky, a long list of limbs in your obituary called grandchildren.

You get an education in psychology, nursing, criminal justice,
communications, and human sexuality that no college can match.

In the eyes of a child, you rank right up there with God.
You have all the power to heal a boo-boo, scare away the monsters
under the bed, patch a broken heart, police a slumber party, ground
them forever and love them without limits, so one day they will,
like you, love without counting the cost.