Hey, check out the mood. Happy. It hasn't said that in awhile. But today was a very good day.

We all got up early today and then got ready and headed out. We headed into the main town area of Galena, and Mom dropped Rob and I off at the tattoo place while she took care of Gabriel.

I spoke with the artist and told him that I had left my design at home, but that Rob had the picture in his e-mail. Luckily for me, he had a computer where we could access Rob's G-Mail and print the image out. He was able to resize it and turn it into a stencil and we were good to go.

We worked some on placement, to make sure it looked right because it was going on my back between my Bast cat and my Set okapi. Once placement was done, I got the tattoo done.

I love getting tattoos. It gives me such an adrenaline rush that I'm happy and hyper for the rest of the day.

The tattoo came out perfect. I love it. I paid for it and surprised the guy with the tip (very high). I told him that I would be coming back there again and knew the value of tipping well. One of my theories is that hairdressers and tattoo artists should always get very high tips, considering what they're doing to your body.

I found my new tattoo guy! Yay!

The design that I got done was of a medallion that I wear for luck and is supposed to aid with memory and good luck and the like. I wore it througout high school, college, and law school for my exams and through both state bars. I passed two state bars with this. So, I thought it about time to get it on my body in a permanent fashion.

By the way, out of all of my tats, this one hurt the worst. It is true, tattoos on the spine hurt like hell.

There are two more tats that I know I'll definitely be getting. One is a memorial tattoo for my two grandfathers (Harold and Roy) and for my grandmother Eleanor that can be added on to if I lose other people close to me. The other I fell in love with today.

While looking around in the shop, I saw an AMAZING tattoo of a nightmare. For those that don't know, a nightmare is a jet black horse with red fiery eyes who has a mane and tail made out of flames. I joked with Rob that he's always promised to get me a nightmare, and he said okay... he would get that tattoo for me when I wanted it. Sweet. The moment I saw it I knew that the tattoo was "me" and it would be one I had to get.

So, I was able to get the tattoo I wanted to, find a new tattoo guy, and find a perfect nightmare tattoo for me to get down the road. A great start to my birthday.

After my tattoo, all of us headed to the doctor's office. My Mom, Rob, and I all got our flu shots today. Gabriel got his last week and so we're all up to date for the season.

From there we made a stop at Wal*Mart. I needed some gauze and tape and noxzema and lotion for my new tattoo. I also picked up three hand held Yahtzee games (one for me, one for Rob, and one for my Mom) and a Pineapple Pup "fur berry" for Gabriel. It's a stuffed animal that changes from a pineapple to a dog. So cute. Rob got me a cool travel make-up and toiletry bag that is camouflage with skulls on it.

Oh, I nearly forgot to mention. Yesterday before we left I got a present in the mail from Amazon. Rob had bought me the DVD for one of my favorite movies... The Ninth Gate. Gabriel had gotten ahold of Daddy's credit card and bought me the Rosin Murphy CD I had really wanted. I love my men. I'm also getting something else from Rob and something from my Mom (other that the card and cash she gave me today), but they haven't arrived in the mail yet.

We headed back home after Wal*Mart and just chilled out around the house. Around 5pm we headed out to dinner. We went to the Chinese place in Dubuque for dinner. It's one of my favorite restaurants and it's where I wanted to eat for my birthday dinner. Dinner was great, though Gabriel was his usual fussy self.

All in all, today has been a great day. I haven't had fun or felt really happy for awhile now, so it was nice to have a change of pace. I'm glad that my birthday was a really good day. The only negative was some stomach problems, but that's been happening a lot as of late.

I can't believe I'm 33. I think I prefer 32. Or 21, yeah, 21 would be nice. 33 is too old and I need to find a way to stop aging. *wink*

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