You Say It's My Birthday?

So, I had this great idea last night to sign up for a bunch of eClubs in order to get free stuff on my birthday. I must have spent over an hour doing this, signing up at places such as TCBY, Caribou Coffee, Orange Julius, Papa Murphy's, Dairy Queen, Annie's Pretzels, Noodles and Company, Sonic, Benihana, Einstein Bagels, Bruegger's Bagels, Fuddruckers, Perkins, etc. (Check out the sites http://www.thefrugalgirls.com/birthday-freebies and http://bargainbriana.com/birthday-freebies-clubs/ for info on these birthday freebies.)

Well, it turns out that signing up for these things on the DAY before your birthday is not such a good idea, because, APPARENTLY, they don't have enough time to process your information.

So there went my dreams of hopping from store to store in the Roseville mall, like I had planned. Note: I had seriously planned on doing this... hitting Orange Julius, Caribou, Bruegger's, Einstein, and Annie's Pretzels all in one fell swoop, and then stopping to pick up some free cookie dough from Papa Murphy's on the way home.

But this was not to be. (A Divine Intervention from God, as Vernon called it.)

The only stores that really came through for me were Sonic and Benihana. A couple of the other stores (like Dairy Queen and TCBY) came through, but just had a BUY ONE, GET ONE FREE offer (which you don't necessarily KNOW when signing up). I signed up for Baskin Robbins, and they sent a thing for a free 2.5 oz ice cream, no other purchase necessary... but there is not even a Baskin Robbins in the area, so I'm not sure why I signed up for it in the first place.

So, my day started out at Caribou Coffee where I had to PAY over $4 for my medium spicy hot chocolate (ah, if only I could have gotten it for free). But it was sooooo good. I love the spicy hot chocolate there. (I normally don't frequent Caribou Coffee, but once, a couple of months ago, when Vern and I were having a Very Important Meeting with his realtor about business stuff, we met there and I ordered a hot chocolate. The barista said, "Would you like to make that a spicy hot chocolate?" And I said, "Yes"... which was, quite possibly, the best decision of my entire life.)

I went there alone, for this was also a gift to myself... alone time. (Vernon and the kids stayed at home making the cake.)

Oh, how I love being alone. I stayed there for over 2 hours, and I only left because a lady came in who smelled like perfume or hairspray or body lotion or something (and you all know how sensitive I am to that crap). I read the newspaper. I finished the book I was reading. I sat silently and daydreamed. I looked at the wall colors. I watched people.

It was lovely.

(I'll talk about the rest of my day tomorrow. It's not over yet.)

And, once again, Peace: