Hey everyone, I hope all is well with all of you. This is my slightly belated yet obligated birthday recap journal. I turned 23 on April 29th~

In the days leading up to my birthday, I was having an especially hard time just because I couldn't be with my husband. If I were home, all I would have really wanted was his company and a Mona (Dutch pudding/mousse brand). But ~Purgatory-Maren and family made it their personal mission to bring me a lovely birthday, regardless of the circumstances. Mom sent me a card which arrived the day before and gave me a little spending money so we could do something nice. We went to a local gamestore and split the costs to get me Hotel Dusk Room 215. For those of you not familiar with it, it's an absolutely fantastic DS game. It was a good price, too. I actually used to own it, but that was one of the many games that was stolen, along with my GCN memory cards, GBA and DS games, and two of our DS's a handful of years ago. It felt very comforting to finally have it again.

Afterwards, they took me to Hershey's Chocolate World. That was very, very cool. You wouldn't believe how much more amazing the chocolate tastes when it's fresh. We grabbed our twizzlers and of course bought a Reeses souvenir for my husband, and then we went out to sushi. It was 50% off night, so we got twice as much sushi as we'd be able to normally, and I got to have my favorite dragon roll. Then we went back home and played Fatal Frame 3 (yaay!).

So it was a nice birthday, and a very welcome joyful day of laughter amidst all the difficulties. I still have one more birthday gift that's arriving tomorrow (no idea what it is), but this was my gift list of (non-edible) things I got this year. Most of these I got before my birthday during my brief stop in California with family. The gifts this year are very personal and sentimental, which makes them so much more precious to me.

-Japanese paper dragonfly earrings
-Red wooden design earrings
-Pewter dragon claw necklace w/green gem
-Real pearl necklace
-Hotel Dusk: Room 215

That was my birthday. I also got a lovely little art gift from ~Gamergal64, thank you dear!

Aside from my birthday, I seem to have had a lot of recent good luck with finding and obtaining obscure games. (We're talking $5 ranges here, no big spending!). I got to pretty much fill out most of the old games I had always wanted to have with great $5 or less deals, and even found Fatal Frame/Project Zero 2: Crimson Butterfly DX on the Xbox, PAL, for $5! *glee* That's a $40 at least used game. So I'm good on games for a while, and especially happy with some old favorites like Adventure Beetle Racing! and Destruction Derby 64. I even grabbed a Memory Pak for $2, and that has opened up a whole new world of N64 saving I never got to know as a kid. I'm also very happy to see how much games have appreciated in value. Guys, if you're collectors, now is the time to grab any little guys you can find! With the Gamecube officially retired from stores, it seems the N64 generation of games and related era are now officially collector's items.

On the work side of things, my husband and I are still hoping for the best and he's still working extremely hard to find a job. On my end, I've been very busy between commissions and game assignments. I think I get more quality work and wind down time done with these guys, though. In the evenings, we like sitting and playing/watching games. It's good for the gamer's soul. I'll be wrapping up a game assignment tomorrow, and then it's probably going to be a lineart day for commissions, followed by a coloring day.

I hope you're all doing well. Thank you to everyone who sent me sweet birthday wishes, I read each one.