My birthday, so far, has been wonderful and weird. I don't know if it was just the full moon or some wonderful serendipitous attempt to delight me on my birthday, but the world has seemed to conspire to endlessly amuse me today.

First off, there was the flasher.

I had decided early this morning, while playing Katamari in my pajamas, that I would like to go to the river to feed the birds. I puttered around for a bit, deliberately not thinking about the massive pile of things I still had to do, because, hey, it was my birthday and I would be damned if I was going to spend the day working. Before we left to go to the river, I needed to go across the street to the bank.

There was a woman standing on the corner, looking as though she also wished to cross. I stood beside her, waiting for a break in traffic, when suddenly she turns to me a lifts up her shirt.

"HI!!" she says, grinning hugely.
"err." I manage. "Hi. Nice day?"

I crossed the street. The ladies in the bank were lined up at the window, bemusedly watching the woman flash cars at random. They got back to work as I came in, and one of them halfheartedly suggested calling the police. Layne also got flashed as he came across the street to meet me, and we chuckled about it on our way back to the car. That little incident done, we picked up some sandwiches from the little cafe down the street, and then headed down to the river.

It was a little cooler than I would have liked, but it did mean that the river was nice and quiet. Layne and I found ourselves a picnic table, and had a nice lunch. While we were eating, I glanced over and saw a small figure in the distance. It was wearing a fox suit.

"Aww," I said, "Isn't that cute? That kid's still wearing his Halloween costume."

The figure came closer, and loomed larger. "I don't think that's a kid..." said Layne.

I spent the rest of lunch watching the furry and his photographer have a wonderful, frolicking photo-shoot in the leaves. I was highly amused by his antics (which included rolling in the leaves and general cartoonish romping) and by the sheer random weirdness. I kept wondering if his suit was homemade - it looked to be pretty well constructed, but after a moment or two of my inner costume-geek trying to figure out what one would use to make a full-sized mascot head (foam and lightweight tubing, obviously) I gave up the line of thought and continued on with my lunch.

After lunch, we wandered down the trails by the river and fed the chickadees. I normally would feel guilty about feeding wild birds, as it's a nasty habit to get them into, but man... I went for a walk down there a few weeks ago and was astounded that I could get them to perch on my hand if I just held it out to them. At one point I looked like something out of a Disney film - I stretched out my hand and a dozen little birds flitted about me cheerily. I half expected them to start darning my socks.

Anyway, they're pretty darned cute and I certainly enjoy watching them, so Layne and I strolled along and occasionally stopped to be mobbed by hungry little birds. The entire walk was, as usual, punctuated by me going, "Oh! Hoary Woodpecker!" and "That one, over there!! Are its wings barred???" and flailing at some nearly invisible bird off in the bush.

Tonight - Hell to Pay. Mmm - yummy demon game. I plan to wear something a little comfier this time, as it will be held at someone's house and goddammit, I want to be able to climb stairs. My other costume, fun though it is, is not made for doing anything more strenuous in than a brisk walk.