Things I seem to have lost in the last 10 days:

1. My Green Card - this is very bad. It costs $390 to replace and it's pretty important, generally speaking, in terms of keeping me in the country.

2. The Target gift card my Mom sent us for $200

3. The Nordstrom's gift card from last birthday with $38 dollars left on it which I planned to put towards a treat for me this year. Maybe a Faconnable shirt because I am yearning to be tailored.

4. Our camera, which we just got returned to us from Spain. Argh.

5. Any pretense of grace and maturity I may ever have cultivated. We ran into our old landlord unexpectedly while cleaning out the house out after Simone has barely slept the night before because she is really acting out after this move and I was tired and cranky and I really didn't want to deal with him and so I did not return his wave and I did not stick around for his fake fake fakity chat and I went straight to our car and let AH deal with him. This I recognize is not mature but it seemed the best thing to do - remove myself from a situation before making it worse because I am HORRIBLE at faking niceness and pleasantness. Just - terrible. But he took it really personally and didn't realize what I was doing was actually better for us all so he confronted Sergio and asked why I was mad, when it was all just a business transaction, he didn't harm us personally. Which I totally agree with - but it doesn't mean I can be gracious, I just can't will myself to be gracious, it is my worst worst trait of many. And asking me to clean the gutters - AGAIN - of the house you just sold leaves me grumpy.

These factors helped culminate in what can cheerfully be recounted as a hilariously terrible birthday, where you cry at noon and are laughing over beer at 5 pm. My child cried all night, still suffering moving blues. The house is a disaster still. A thrift store I travelled a long distance to was actually shut down. Unexpected moving charges and the day before payday rendered even my planned matinee movie and smuggled in coffee and chocolate impossible, which was a real kick in the fiscal pants. Also as a result, rather than the nice lunch I had been planning, I had to eat my daughters Annies mac n cheese for lunch as it was the only thing in the house, with her plastic baby spoon. My once a month City Council meeting fell on this evening and I was recording secretary. My husband picked me up at 7:30 and there was no dinner and an ice cream cake. So we had that for dinner. No cards or anything so thank god for Facebook and interweb friends or I'd be crying in my ice cream right now.

School starts tomorrow. 30 hour work week starts tomorrow. Must unpack and cram my self-pity up my own pipe and smoke it. I need to take a birthday page out of this ladies book and learn to be grateful and humble and gracious. And older.