My 55 Surprise

Brandy

I turned 55 today.

Mom and my sister called me into the kitchen where Mom was eating her breakfast as soon as they knew I was up.  Carri presented me with a large cardboard box and a box cutter saying We decided not to wrap it.

I sliced thru the taped up end and slid out a box that looked like an oversized shoe box--long and narrow.  In the middle of the lid it said Ashton-Drake which is a name I'm quite familiar with having drooled over the photos of their collector babies in magazines and mailers for decades.  So I kinda knew it was a baby doll but it was even better than that clue led me to expect.

This doll is so lifelike I'm afraid if certain congress persons learned about her they'd be trying to pass a personhood amendment on her behalf.

She has a cloth torso stuffed with something that reminds me of beanie babies but denser.  Her limbs and head are a vinyl or vinyl-like substance that looks so lifelike you are surprised it isn't warm when you touch it.  Her hair is embedded one strand at a time and Carri believes they used human hair. She is about the size and feel of a 6lb newborn.  She smells like a freshly bathed and powdered baby.

Her collector edition name was "Sweet Dream Belle".  The name Belle was growing on me through the day until mid afternoon when I heard myself say 'Baby Belle" and instantly thought of the cheese snack I love and started having second thoughts.  But the clincher was when I made the association with the heroine of Twilight and knew I did not want her to remind me continuously of an insipid teen pining after a vampire.  Which reminded me of the defiant teen pining after a drug dealer in my story Making Rag Doll Babies and Million Dollar Maybes, who gives birth at age 15 to a baby girl she names Brandy.  And there was my name.

I gave the infant character the name Brandy to signify her role as symbol of the spirit in my Fruits of the Spirit storyworld.  I'm thinking that by naming the doll Brandy too she might serve for me as a FOS storyworld muse.

My sister left for an out of town dental appointment for surgery on a broken root soon after I opened my gift and I was on duty with Mom for the rest of the day.  I fixed toasted cheese sandwiches and tomato soup for lunch and burritos for dinner and cleaned up the kitchen. During Mom's nap this afternoon I posted two albums on fb--one for the doll and one for fiber arts featuring the diaper bag and crafter tote. After dinner I sat in the living room with Mom crocheting until she headed to bed.  Then while she was getting ready for bed (it takes her up to an hour) and until my sister got home just before 11pm I was catching up with fb messages and my NaNo noveling.

I made it through the day without mishap!  No crashing into the dishwasher, Mom's walker, or Mom.  The worst thing that happened was boiling over Mom's cup of soup in the microwave and then dragging my sleeve through it when cleaning it up.

I'd been planning to put up both a It's Monday, What are You Reading and a ROW80 post before sleeping tonight.  The first for Tuesday's post and the second for Wednesday's post.  But after visiting with my sister for half an hour I was ready to call it a day and decided to put up this post instead thinking it would take me about fifteen minutes.  Ha.