Today’s my birthday, and I’m giving myself the day off (mostly) to have fun. I don’t have firm plans, but most of the bigger things I have in mind for celebrating will come later in the month when it’s cooler. Today is going to be hot and with a chance of storms, so I don’t want to go too far. I think I may head up to the book fair — it’s really just a big bookstore, but they call it a book fair. It’s about three barns full of books and book-related stuff like calendars, puzzles and notebooks. They also sell closeout merchandise they get from large retailers like Target. I got my coziest pair of winter boots there last year. You never know what you’ll find, so it’s like a hunting expedition.

From there, I can get to a couple of farm markets and there’s the Amish mall (I think there’s just one shop there that sells Amish-made wood goods, but they also have a housewares shop and a sewing shop that cater to Mennonites). There are some things I’m looking for to do some projects around the house. And then there’s the international grocery store not far from there so I can restock on tea. I may have lunch while I’m out, then there’s an ice cream shop on the way home, and I hope to be back before the afternoon storms kick in. I may treat myself to dinner out in the evening, if it’s not too hot to walk downtown or isn’t storming at that time.

I have to sing for a funeral Saturday morning, so I may get lunch and gelato at the shop downtown afterward. Otherwise, I’m planning to let myself relax both Friday and Saturday. I’ve had a busy couple of weeks, and I’ve done a lot of house work and yard work. I have some craft projects I’ve been working on, and I have books.

Later in the month, I have a day trip planned and a short overnight trip/mini vacation planned. There are a lot of downsides to having an August birthday, and one is that the weather usually isn’t great. The other is that I was never in school for my birthday or able to get invitations to my school friends, so I seldom had birthday parties as a kid. As an adult, this seems to be when everyone is out of town, getting in one last trip before school starts.