Craft fairs and birthday dinners

I think that Saturday may have been the longest day ever.

I helped Lex out at a craft fair for most of the day, and even after setting up Friday night, we had to be there at ohmygod in the morning. Its been years since I was at a "normal" craft fair, with simple living-room crafts as opposed to hig end crafts. There were lots of baked goods, fleece scarves, overpriced eyelash yarn scarves, and kitchy country sorts of things. There were also tons of cute children and girl and boy scouts running around, a few priests in full regalia, and a severely underpracticed school band playing Christmas tunes. It was a good day, and it was fun to hang out with Lex. She reminds me a lot of my friends back home. It was also a really, really long day given that I'd planned my birthday party that same night.

About a dozen of my favorite people met at Casablanca for dinner and to watch bellydancing. The service was a little confusing and sorting out the bill was pretty much a pain in the ass, but the food was really good and it made me feel special that everyone took the time to come. And I got presents! A cookie cookbook, just in time for Christmas baking, jewelry, DVDs, and a super groovy invisible rubber devil duck. By the time we got home, I'd been up for something like 20 hours. Oy.

Jason's been doing a 12 Days of Christmas type thing with my birthday this year. Yesterday morning before I left the house to teach he gave me a CD of Andean folk music by a local group that plays by the metro stations downtown. I played it for the kids during class and it was a big hit. Yesterday night before bed he gave me this morning's present--a gift card to Starbucks, so I don't have to feel guilty about spending money I don't have on Gingerbread lattes.