I know I've used that Anya quote before, but I absolutely love it so have decided it's okay to use it again. (ETA: I just discovered I used same quote *exactly* a year ago, which randomly amuses me.) Especially since this post is about how awesome and wonderful my birthday was - thanks to all of you and my RL friends and family!! But first I must pass along (slightly belated) birthday wishes to two extremely wonderful women: lillianmorgan and tkp!!! I hope you have both had fantastic days - you deserve much happiness and wonderful things. *throws confetti and hugs you both*

But now let's talk about me! Opps, clearly all the absolutely lovely birthday wishes I received have totally gone to my head and I am imagining myself to be far more important than I am! Seriously though, I am still absolutely delighted by all the kind words from all of you as well as the delightful gifts I received!!!

I know you've all been on the edge of your seats wondering how I spent my birthday, so here's the answer:

I began it by chatting with my absolutely amazing girlfriend and opening her wonderful gift to me - definitely the best way to ring in my 30th birthday. *gets all sappy and sentimental*

Okay, I've pulled myself together so I can relate more of my exiting birthday adventures (I shall save LJ related excitement till after the RL stuff). After rushing around to get ready, I made it to Insomnia Cafe with plenty of time to snag enough seats for all my friends and I (there were 8 of us total). It was a wonderful mix of friends - which included sunnyd_lite! I am pleased to report that the meeting of fandom and RL was successful - although possibly because all my friends are very geeky and fandomy inclined anyway (and one of them even betas my fic for me). Oh! And the food was sooo yummy. I splurged (cause you only turn 30 once!) and got the "Heaven on Earth" (Wild berries, cream cheese and honey sandwiched between lightly tanned French toast, dusted with powdered sugar, served with a side of pure Canadian maple syrup). It is as sinfully delicious as it sounds.

It was such a lovely day - and since the Bloor-Danforth subway had stopped working and shuttle buses were running - a few of us wandered along Bloor Street, enjoying the day and eating ice cream (which I refrained from because the french toast was very intense and I knew I'd be eating again very soon.)

I had a short time at home to dump my stuff before my dad picked me up and I went to my parent's place for this incredible meal prepared by my mom. There were flatbreads, cheese manicotti, mini samosas, and at least 3 salads. So good! AND there was Mint Chocolate birthday cake, fruit, raspberry and hazelnut gelato (making the "no ice cream" decision earlier that much smarter), and Godiva chocolates. Mmmmmmmmm. I got leftovers so I get to continue enjoying the meal!

So as we were all sitting in a post-food haze, the building's fire alarm went off and we had to walk down 9 floors. The funny thing was that the last time we were all together (my mom, dad, brother, his girlfriend and I) at one of our places eating food we'd prepared was Christmas at my place - and the building's fire alarm went off then too!!! Neither times we were responsible - although it seemed more likely this time because upon realizing there were no matches in the place (my parents just moved in recently), my mom and brother proceeded to use the oven to set paper on fire so they could light the candles on my cake. (This makes my family sound way less safety conscious than we actually are.)

It was a lovely day and when I arrived home I was completely blow away with how wonderful my flist is!

Thanks to lillianmorgan for the lovely birthday card!! And thanks to electricalgwen and madame_meretrix for the awesome virtual gifts!!!!

I was overwhelmed with the absolutely wonderful fic written for my birthday!! Seriously, I’m still grinning about it!

apreludetoanend - On Earth as it is in Heaven, Giles, Spike, PGish
Absolutely gorgeously poetic and sheer perfection in just 375 words. Here’s a taste:

Rupert spends his nights riding the frayed edges of a lightning cut sky. If he had a mission, he’s long since blind to it; instead, he follows his outstretched hand and aches for a moment of quiet to assess whether he’s propelling this arm, naked and grey-haired and his, or being towed helplessly behind.

electricalgwen - Every Claim You Stake, Spike/Xander, R
This is set in Angel season 5, around the episodes "Unleashed" and "Hell Bound", in an AU where Xander joined the W&H crew after Sunnydale's collapse. Spike is incorporeal during this time making this a wonderfully creative – and an impressively hot – fic. The awesome opening lines:

Xander can’t shake the feeling that someone is watching him.

He doubts this makes him paranoid. Someone almost certainly is. He can’t locate any hidden cameras in his new office, but he’d expect Wolfram and Hart to have the best in undetectable surveillance equipment.

savoytruffle - Over Thinking, Spike/Xander, manny!verse human AU, Mature
If you haven’t been reading the absolutely fun, hot and witty manny!verse, you should drop everything to check it out! This installment in the verse not only has some sizzling S/X interactions, but also a hysterical Willow and Xander scene as well as some lovely moments as Xander grapples with really entering the dating world – with the young, manny! I don’t want to spoil too much, so shall just tempt you with this Willow and Xander exchange:

She held the two hangers up in front of Xander, studied him for a moment and nodded. “Maybe not Kirk Cameron, but definitely not Alan Thicke.”

Xander glared at her. “Not Alan Thicke? That’s the best you can do?”

reremouse - Three, Chapter 6, Spike/Xander, Adult
My birthday coincided with the posting day for reremouse’s fantastic new fic (which if you haven’t been following along: rush off and read it NOW here), so she very kindly dedicated the chapter to me – much to my delight. This is a fantastic fic, set post-Chosen, Xander is living in San Francisco and then Spike shows up asking a big favour. I’m totally hooked on this story and look forward to the updates each Sunday. Here’s the first few lines of Chapter Six (I don’t want to give too much away!):

He's ready to talk some time around three in the morning and it'd be his scum-class ticket out if Spike was human and not a nocturnal vampire who knows when you are sleeping, knows when you're awake.

And boy does he know when Xander's been bad or good but that's entirely beside the point.

Which Xander gets to without preamble.

heee, so this isn’t a rec cause, well, I wrote it: What Doesn't Kill You, Buffy, Spike/Xander, PG
It’s written for adis723 as part of the Fluffathon ficathon. Vinnie’s prompts were so awesome and had me so excited and inspired that I also sorta wrote it for me. Thus why I posted it on my birthday (and because while writing it I wrote it with the idea of posting it on my 30th birthday).

So I’m sure you’ll agree that it was very awesome birthday!!!! I felt incredibly spoiled by everyone – which is a very cool feeling! *secretly wishes I had another birthday in a month but only if I didn’t have to add another year to my age*

So I want to end with: THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!! I had such a wonderful birthday! *hugs you all*