Suburban Correspondent inspired today's blog post.
Last year, Persnickety and I tooled around Disney for my birthday. I was freshly planted with the mini-human, but wasn't 100% sure at that point. I was still arguing with God that it was perimenopause, NOT another baby. I lost that argument big time. She's cute and smart and funny (because I haven't made babies any other way), and I think I'll keep her. This year, Disney changed their freebie to "do something for someone else, ya schmuck" and quite honestly, I've got lots calling my name, and the Mouse isn't loud enough. I did have fun with what we thought was a child-free trip. Hence that's how the baby was tagged as "The Stowaway" on my blog, and the pregnancy ticker.
So here we are rounding the corner to another birthday and I'm trying to figure out what I want to do for it. I grew up with crummy birthdays. I can count on ONE hand how many childhood birthdays were any fun, had some kind of commemoration even. ONE hand. My parents treated birthdays as just any other day. I didn't even get cake. Occasionally I got cupcakes to share with classmates, but not every year. Birthdays sucked like an industrial strength shop vac. My sister suggested I just lower my expectations so I wasn't disappointed. I did one better. I decided that I was not going to rely on those around me to do something for my birthday. Devildog looks at it as just another day too, and that's just annoying. He just doesn't particularly care, even saying "Why am I going to point out that I'm OLD?"
The first year I gave myself a good birthday, I made a weekend of it. My birthday was on a Thursday or Friday that year. I did a monthly girls night out on the 3rd Thursday with some board buddies, and it started with that - and I ordered what I wanted, not what was least expensive. Friday, I came home from work and did NOTHING. The kids ate PB&J sandwiches that they made themselves. Saturday and Sunday, I went shopping for new underwear at Victoria Secret's Semi-Annual Clearance sale. YAY for wedgie-free drawers! That has become a yearly part of my birthday ritual now. I go in June, just because I can.
That year, I enjoyed my birthday for a change. It didn't suck. And since then, I've made a point to do something for my own darn birthday because my kids are only so capable and resourceful, and my husband has no interest. I will say that last year, I got a call from the oldest while I was at Disney, asking if he could bake a cake for me for my birthday. SURE! So I got home really late, and the kids left the cake on the stove for me. I took pictures of it (not sure which memory card at this point) and waited till they were all home from school the next day to eat any of it.
This year? not sure entirely but it will involve a round of the usual Birthday freebies from those places I signed up for, and visit to my favorite local yarn shop for the Midnight Knit In. The Yarntender does them every couple months in addition to the weekly Wednesday & Friday extended hours for yarnies to gather. One of the other girls at the shop shares my birthday, and Persnickety's is a couple weeks after mine - maybe we can plan ahead and Persnickety can join us finally (hint hint?!?!) She's a couple weeks younger than I am. But, I - nevermind, I'll be nice. On one trip 'Snick and FCB took, she got me a plaque that says "It's great to have a friend to grow old with. YOU GO FIRST!" Just what I wanted for my birthday - to be told that I'm OLD.
Monday, January 11, 2010
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5 comments:
But you are OLD! Older than me. So are the rest of my friends. What can I say? I like hanging out with chronoligically challenged people. You just let me know what you want, where you want it and when and I will so be there with bells on. Or yarn. Or a bow. Or whatever.
WV: Revot. Because we were too poor to afford the whole revolt, and didn't want to take a revote. Or we are using a really cool french accent and trying to say rivet. You choose.
No comments about you being old! As the gal who shares your birthday and is at least a decade and a half older than you, no more old talk!
Perimenopause? At your age? Be careful or you'll end up with Stowaway2!
Leigh, clothed please. The rest of the instructions will be shared later, when they're crafted. My only birthday plans at this very moment 10 days out is the midnight knit in. Which I'm giving you advance warning so you can arrange things with the FCB and the Punk.
Jackie, that argument was last January. Lesson learned. And it would be stowaway #5. I'm really NOT trying to keep up with my dad, or several friends. And I never said *I* was old. Devildog says that...and he's 3 months younger than I am.
Happy Birthday! I hope it's a charming one. And, delightful! And.. hang on a sec, I accidentally closed the thesaurus tab... And, magical!
I hope you have a wonderful birthday! Last year, on my 31st I got to announce that 2 years after my tubes were tied, I was pregnant. That was a huge shock to the family, and I'm looking forward to a less shocking birthday this year! (my twins were born October 15th, and we now have 4 kids also)
I'm new here and LOVE your profile pic! I have a pink handgun, and we always wonder whether someone that tried to hurt me would be more upset that I shot them or that it was with a pink gun.
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