A Week Of Good Wishes

My 51st birthday will be remembered as one of those birthdays that seemed to go on forever.   This is a very pleasant thought and means of celebration and what the hey?  You only get one birthday a year and it's great that the people in my life want to eke out the celebration of the day my life began.

My birthday was Saturday, August 14th.  My happy birthday acknowledgements officially began last Wednesday while I was at work.  Our very caring, thoughtful activity director gives everyone at work, both residents and staff, a birthday spotlight during the noon meal.  The birthday goodies include:  a card signed by the staff and residents, a small gift (this year I received a cute little stuffed puppy), a never-to-be-free-from pointy birthday hat and an amazingly generous ice cream concoction of some sort with the obligatory candle blazing away merrily (quick! make a wish and blow before it melts into the ice cream).  This year my ice cream was sugar free, a nice touch.

A brief speech of appreciation is given followed by an all too frequent anemic version of the Happy Birthday song.  I was truly impressed and pleased this year because the entire population of the dining room stopped eating long enough to sing to me and they gave it their all, actually singing on key (no small miracle, this).  I was honored to say the least.  This whole business takes less than five minutes and is lots of fun in a moderately embarrassing way.  The "Happy Birthdays" and good wishes continued all the next day at work, Thursday, because our activity director mistakenly thought I was starting my little vacation a day earlier than I actually was.

I'm in the habit of giving myself the gift of a day off from work on my birthday.  This year I decided to fluff it out a bit by adding a day or two to give myself four sweet days altogether.  The next day, Friday, my darling daughter and her little family took me out for lunch.  They've been doing this for the past three years and it's become a nice little tradition.  On Saturday, my actual birthday, my husband and I went to our beloved hot springs for the day.  He made us a great lunch and later, a fabulous dinner.  The weather was lovely though unusually cool for the middle of August.  At these springs, however, there are lots of warm retreats.  This was the perfect place to spend a birthday.

Sunday morning dawned and I arose to find a note on the kitchen counter from my son saying, "Save your appetite for SweetRiver.  I'll be up around 8".  My very dear son treated his dad and me to breakfast at a restaurant that serves up an awesome, all you can eat breakfast buffet.  Will this birthday madness never end?  I had an extraordinarily special birthday last year when I turned 50.  I fully expected this year's to come and go without much fanfare.  I was quite mistaken.

All in all, it's been a gastronomic birthday.  I've consumed more food (and many kinds in particular that I deny myself for various reasons) during these past several days than I normally do.  I strongly suspect my family enjoys plying me with food.  It's been sinfully tasty and highly enjoyable.  I have a wonderful family and I love them dearly.  Now that the festivities are over, it's high time for me to get back to caloric reality!