Home again, greeted with presents!

So, I'm home! I arrived home completely exhausted on Halloween. I was so tired and dirty that I just refused to be seen, heading up to my dorm for a much-needed bath.

The following day, I had a thorough medical exam, followed by an emergency eye surgery (I'm good as new now!). I went into the hair salon and had my hair re-conditioned. The ends had gotten quite frizzy during my extensive travels. While I was there, I decided to put some curl into it. I knew the curls wouldn't stay for long, but I think my hair looks better with a little bit of volume to it.

When I was finally feeling up to it, I decided to take a walk around my neighborhood, getting the feel of it again. It felt so surreal to walk the streets I was once familiar with! It was a gorgeous day out, though, and I had fun looking for signs of autumn.




So, here is an up-close look at my hair. I've always wanted to put some curl into it, but I've never been brave enough to do it until now. How my hair looks curly reminds me of my favorite character Angélique in the film À la folie... pas du tout!



When I got back from my walk, I found a package waiting for me, from my best friends, Sora, Lorikeet, Violet, Lyre Chickadee, and Zipporah Valdez! They had been hinting about having birthday presents for me, but they didn't want to send them until I made it home.

When I opened the package, I pulled out a black tee with a jeweled Eiffel Tower on the front. How cute is that?



I also found the book Lassie: Adventures in Alaska (reminding me of my cruise!), a beautiful travel journal, a bottle of my favorite soda, several little Disney toys...



...and, best of all, this wooden Eiffel Tower! The quints obviously know how much I love to be reminded of Paris. I'm going to have so much fun painting this!



Also in the box was a message in a bottle. After carefully pulling the message out with a pair of tweezers, I read what it said:

True friends
are always
together
in spirit.



However nice receiving physical birthday presents is, the best present of all is definitely friendship! In this very modern world driven by individual success, friendship can be hard to come by, so I feel very grateful indeed to have best friends like Sora, Lorikeet, Lyre Chickadee, Violet, and Zipporah Valdez!

Thank you, girls, for the nice birthday gifts, but also for your friendship!

So, to my readers, what is the nicest gift you've ever gotten from a friend?

~Sophie