Anniversary of Me

I'm awake, and RW's gone to work, and Mermaid Girl, my date for the day, is still asleep, so Good Morning, Internet! It's my birthday! I'm 39!

I wrote in somewhat glum and understated terms about my planned day here, squandering my inaugural powers and responsibilities as a Guest Author at the Brand Spanking New Spanglemonkey Non-Stop Birthday Party Delight Blog which the magnificent Jo Spanglemonkey has just set up, and on which you too can celebrate your own upcoming birthday! But everyone's being very kind about it so far.

The truth is, I'm psyched about my day. Last year for my birthday I tried treating myself to a day home by myself in the house, but it kind of fizzled; I was jumpy and restless and kept thinking "I should be Doing Something! It's my Birthday!" This year I'm keeping Mermaid Girl home with me and we'll do errands together and make cupcakes, the kind of day I almost never have. And she will be sure to wish me a happy birthday approximately every five minutes, which is about what my ego seems to demand.

For lunch we're going to the Tiny Diner, best diner in town. You can't go on weekends because there are crowds out the door, and they're closed Mondays so I can never go on school closure three day weekends, so I haven't been in years. I plan to have the Slacker Special in memory of my youth.

My old friend Emmie, who moved to Seattle the same summer I did, will meet us there, with her daughter Little Latke, last seen in this space back in December as a scarily early and tiny preemie in the NICU. Now she's a healthy, spheroid, bouncy baby (literally-- I saw her bouncing merrily along in her frontpack as her other mom ran alongside the stroller drill team at the Pride Parade), 3 months' corrected gestational age. She'll grow up (ptui, ptui, ptui) and no one will know the drama and intensity of her beginnings, except us boring old grownups who were there.

My own start wasn't quite so dramatic, but there was plenty of excitement for my mom just the same. Thanks, Mom! Thanks, Dad! It's a pretty good planet to be on, this one. Lots of air and water and everything.

Updated to mention three more nice things:

1) My mom gave me a pencil sharpener for my birthday! It was just what I wanted, in fact it was just about the only thing on my birthday wish list. Up till now we only had one of those tiny ones that comes in a kid's pencil box. It never really sharpened the pencils and they sat around all stubby and annoying. This one screws into the wall and you turn the handle and the pencils come out satisfyingly dagger-pointy.

2) RW surprised me at 12:05 last night with a plate of raspberry-festooned Nanaimo bars and birthday wishes. She is really nice to me. Well, a lot of the time. I don't think I've mentioned that much here lately (or at home either, come to think of it).

3) The Danish Cousins are coming here on their road trip! MG is in ecstacy. They called yesterday to ask if it was okay for them to show up tonight, a day early. So we will have a small party after all. Cupcakes and Danes! What more could anyone ask for?