Ah, 23 years old. God that sounds old.

Attention, I have an Announcement!

>>>>*~*TODAY IS MY BIRTHDAY!!!!*~*<<<< ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Please, no applause. And as is my way, I have trouble sleeping sometimes and feel the need to express my innermost thoughts even though no one ever reads it and this usually just turns into a session of self-indulgence. But then it's my birthday so the world has to do what I want!!!

Well, where to start? How does one encapsulate 23 years of life? Eh, too much effort. Let's just talk about where I am now.

I am, for maybe the first time in my life, genuinely and utterly happy. Even though I'm surrounded by liberal indoctrination and general nut jobs, I don't care because so much of my life is just simply lovely. I have my forever best friend Travers who, bless him, let me rant and rave about Obama, make snarky comments, and tell him about my uterus for thirty minutes last night. He is just one of those people who are just simpatico with my soul. I have such wonderful friends spread out all over the country. I have my new network of friends, Team C. I cannot tell you how much I enjoy Blue, Kat, Lash, Deuce, Jojo, Jersey, and the Captain. They are truly great friends. Then I have such wonderful friends as Felicia, who I always can talk to and makes me laugh. I'm living in a Beautiful house, that is like a palace compared to where I've lived before. (most people don't know this, but I've spent most of my life in Trailer houses) My classes are completely nuts full of liberal indoctrination, but hey, thats interesting. I have a new car. And even though my Grandmother is having several problems with her kidneys, everyone else seems to be doing well.

But I think the biggest difference is the transformation that occurred this summer. I feel so free of my neuroses. i'm not going into a big thing about all the bad stuff that happened in Italy, but all those things happened and I survived. I had surgery last Sat, something I've been putting off forever, and I survived. All of these seem silly, and they do now, but I was paralized with fear about being unliked, unpopular, alone, and pain. Now thats its all happened I feel so free. Free like I could never be in Lubbock Texas.

Furthermore, I'm so proud to be an American and living abroad makes me love this country sooooooo much. God is Truly Great.

So even though my birthday is usually really depressing, this year I just can't be depressed about living in Las Vegas, being a year behind in my classes, or being away from all I love. Because for me, it might not get better than this. And God knows, its been much much worse. So this birthday? I'm doing good.

Now if McCain could just make my birthday a complete delight and nominate Palin or Hutchison for VP.