I turned thirty for the first (unofficial) time on Sunday and the second (official) time on Monday, and I had a wonderful time at both celebrations.

At Wiscon I got to dress up (yes, in the wedding dress!) for the Dessert Salon and hang out with some of my favorite people in the whole world. As we were chatting and eating luscious desserts (mmmmm, chocolate cake laced with coffee!), suddenly the next table over started singing "Happy Birthday" to me, my table joined in, Greg passed around an impromptu birthday card (torn from an ur-writerly Moleskine!), and I actually teared up a little because it was just so wonderful and I felt so happy. You guys are such good friends. Thank you! It was a wonderful introduction to being thirty. At one point during the Dessert Salon, SarahP said, "You know, I am actually in Heaven", and I totally agreed. It was just perfect.

And then on Monday, we flew home to Michigan to be with more of my favorite people in the world (including my youngest brother Dave, just back from Budapest - he knows me so well that my birthday gift came from the Cafe Gerbeaud, my favorite Budapest cafe!), and I got to celebrate my birthday all over again. I even got a fantastic birthday surprise - a cute little bright-blue iPod Nano! I've never had an iPod (but always wanted one), and I am having so much fun playing with my new toy. I went out and bought a protective iPod sock to cover it, and right now I'm transferring over as much of my music as possible. It was good timing, too - I got Eva Cassidy's CD Songbird for my birthday, and right now I'm listening to it obsessively, so this way I can listen to it over and over without making anyone around me go crazy from the repetition! :)

Wiscon was so great in terms of creative inspiration - I came back determined to finally revise CoS and "Red Ribbons", finish Kat, and write lots of new short stories - but most of all, it just felt like coming home. One of the things that's made me happiest in the last few years has been becoming a part of this amazing community of fellow writers. As I sat at the Dessert Salon listening to my friends sing me "Happy birthday", I just felt overwhelmed by how lucky I've been. At twenty (when I had never met another sf/fantasy author in my life, and I felt so weird and isolated), I just couldn't have imagined this feeling of belonging. And I'm so grateful for it.

Thank you, guys. Thank you so much.