Delights

Last night I lay awake for what felt like hours. My alarm clock glowed an eerie green, and through a gap in the curtains a street lamp threw an orange spike. I pressed my eyes shut but still felt too excited let sleep wash over me.

I do have a lot to be excited about. Tonight I am going to see Gone With The Wind (the musical) for the pre-press night. More exciting than seeing the show itself is the fact that the ticket is free! I probably wouldn't make an effort to see the show otherwise, because I prefer to spend my money helping out poor people and saving puppies from burning buildings (those doggy gas masks aren't cheap). It feels good and wholesome to do something I wouldn't normally do. (That rule only applies in certain situations, of course. I wouldn't normally kneecap old people with spanners but that doesn't mean I'm going to start hanging around retirement homes glowering menacingly and clutching a tool box.)

Tomorrow I am taking a day off temping and going to a free event called 'Women in the Music Industry', which is a day of sessions and talks from women involved in all areas of the industry. It's to be held somewhere in Hackney, so in the morning I will skip over there, clutching a pen and paper (pilfered, no doubt, from a nearby stationery cupboard), eager to learn stuff, meet people and generally improve myself.

Wednesday I will be back temping, but looking forward to an evening meeting with Nyika about the gigs we're organising for the summer.

What, Thursday? What's happening on Thursday, you ask?

Well, on Thursday it is my birthday! I will turn twenty-six years old. I am going to meet my parents (and perhaps one of my sisters) for breakfast at a fancy hotel, where I will stuff myself with breakfast delights before lazily heading in to work. Once five-thirty meanders gently around I will dart out of the door and over to Soho for a happy hour cocktail or two at Balans before heading on to a nearby pub for cheaper and simpler drinks.

On Friday I will have a hangover, but it will be alright for I will be cheered by the thought of my new pony (which I assume someone will have bought for me as a gift, perhaps with a ribbon on her head) who will be grazing ponyishly in my back garden.

I might go out on Friday night, but I might not, because I on Saturday morning I will make my sunny way up to Manchester to visit this person and watch him do his one man show.

I stay in Manchester until the following Wednesday, as on Tuesday I am going to a Birthday Gig! That isn't what it's called, but that is as much as I currently know about it. It is a surprise. I very much looking forward to it, but I am also slightly wary because if it isn't 'Charmed: The Musical (On Ice)' I will be very disappointed.

Can you see why I couldn't sleep for excitement? The prospect of more than a week of fun, birthdays, cocktails and music is surely enough to have anyone staring happily into the dark.

Admittedly the week didn't start off as auspiciously as I had hoped, what with an awkward moment in the gym this morning when I accidentally took another woman's towel into the sauna with me. (Actually it was a fairly spectacular breach of gym etiquette. She looked so horribly aghast when I eventually presented her with her damp, limp, sauna-fied towel that I was forced to stay in the shower until I saw she had left the changing room, and was consequently very late for work. I am considering changing gyms out of sheer humiliation.)

Despite all of that I am still buzzing with what can only be described as excited glee. This time last year I was working in Luton, the year before that I was man-handled by a urine-drenched tramp and the year before that I was at diaryland, and apparently obsessed with the fact that I had dared to go out in a see-through dress.

Today is Monday, but it doesn't feel too Monday-mundane. I have some chocolate buttons in my drawer but I am too excited to eat them. I am wearing great shoes. Life seems alright here on the brink of twenty-six.

Twenty-six seems like a nice age to be. I plan to enjoy it as much as I possibly can.