Yesterday was full of great things.

My friend Annie hosted a party at her house yesterday to "Celebrate America's Freedom and Elana's." (Because Elana graduated from high school this year and it was actually a graduation party. Clever, right?)

These are the great things that happened:

I got to catch up with people I haven't seen in ages! Annie's friends are some of the coolest people on the planet... and I might someday have to write the women into a novel. I mean, Annie's friends are the artiest, kindest, most confident, gorgeous women you could ever meet. They have this inner strength that just shines in them and I legitimately love spending time with them. Such an amazing group of humans.

I got to catch up with my coworker Bob and his wife Gina and they are even more fascinating than I thought they were! Bob is this quiet guy who knows so much and is so kind and I've just always liked him. And his wife? Oh my gosh. Gina is like my animal soulmate: she'll do anything to save a creature!

There were bagpipes! Annie's family was there (I got to meet her dad and her brothers!) and they are incredibly musical and so there was a concert around the campfire and wouldn't you know one of the musicians plays the bagpipes? So in between songs, there was David standing on the third-floor balcony of the house, just belting out some bagpipe phenomena. It. Was. So. Cool.

Remember my friend Nicole who read my GIANT Running Through the Words and loved it? Well, I was talking to her and her daughter Charlotte about books. Charlotte just finished listening to Like A Flip Turn and she and her mom were talking about their favorite characters in the car one day. (Because they've read different books by the same author, right? And they're talking about them.) And Charlotte mentions that she really liked Petey, and Nicole was like, "Wait. Petey Goode? He's in your book too?" And then they started comparing notes about other crossover characters and that just made me really, REALLY happy because I get excited like that each time I put a crossover character in one of my books! It's like reuniting with an old friend!

That last one was my favorite thing that happened yesterday -- I'm still on a little bit of a compliment high from that one. ❤️