Birthday recap

Somehow I never managed to get online and post a recap of the wonderful 4th/5th of July week, and here it is July 15th already. But better late than never. Actually, part of the reason I was holding off was to wait for my presents to arrive, most of which are coming by mail. But I can show you a couple of things. The photo shows the new Playmobil stuff, which includes (1) the store building (I already had the contents); (2) a two-story addition on the left, (3) the bottom-floor-of-the-addition furnishings, including a fold-out couch, desk & chair, and other things; (4) the top-floor furnishings, a master bedroom set. I now have everything I wanted, Playmobil-wise, and this brings up a problem. When you have a dollhouse, you are a collector, always finding new little bits and pieces for it. But this little dollhouse is FULL, as is my desk--in fact, to use the desk I will have to put the store building somewhere else temporarily. So I can play with my dollhouse, sort of, to the extent that 57-year-olds play with dollhouses, but I can't really add to it. Will this be a problem? I don't know.

Here is another present that arrived this past Wednesday, and it is now completely eaten and gone. My little sister ordered us 2 dozen Miller & Paine cinnamon rolls from Runza Restaurants, which now have the M&P recipe. They bake on Monday and mail them out that day only. Ours arrived Wednesday evening. We ate the first dozen on Thursday, nine more on Friday, and the last three today. Yum yum yum! What a fun present!

Rocket Boy and the twins gave me the Lego set of the Burj Khalifa, which I had asked for (I'll take a photo after the twins and I build it), and David Bowie's last CD, which I'd also asked for. And the rest of the presents are the result of me spending gift cards from my sisters, so they're taking their time arriving. I'll do another post when more things have come.

As for the birthday itself, hmm. Going back a ways to July 4th, it was pretty hot that day, so we drove up to that little park above Central City and hung out there for a while. Both Rocket Boy and I took walks in the woods beyond the lake -- separately, so that one of us could stay with the twins, who preferred to swing on the swings and mess around by the lake.

That night we barbecued hot dogs and salmon, and we also had potato salad and corn on the cob and toasted marshmallows (no cake, per my plan -- which was fine, we didn't need it). After dinner we waited until 9 pm and then hiked up the hill across the street from us to watch fireworks. However, we made the mistake of returning to last year's rock, forgetting about all the cactus and other prickly plants that we had to walk through to get to it. I had told the kids to wear real shoes, but of course Kid B just wore crocs (a step up from flip-flops, at least), and Z from next door DID wear flip-flops. Kid A and I wore sneakers, but the thorns went right through them! It was awful. (Rocket Boy was the only smart one, in hiking boots.) We reached the rock, but everyone was in pain, and we finally agreed to go back to the path and keep walking west. We eventually found a flat roof-like thing, no prickly pear, and THAT'S where we're going to go next year, no rock in the middle of a field of cactus. Note to self: please remember this.

The next day was of course my birthday, and it was better than last year, but not wonderful. I'm starting to wonder whether it is possible for me to enjoy my birthday anymore. No matter what I do, it doesn't work out. So anyway, my plan was to get up early and bake my birthday cake, before it got up to 97 degrees, as it was predicted to do. I got up early, ate breakfast, and then started cleaning up the kitchen, so I'd have room to bake. There was a small vase full of wilted flowers on the table, so I put the flowers in the compost and casually tossed the water from the vase into the sink. As I did so, to my horror, a bunch of small screws also flew from the vase to the sink, screws I had not realized were in the vase. And I heard the sound of one or two of them going down the drain. I rushed over and rescued the rest, but at least one (it turned out to be three) had gone down.

You can't reach down our drain, you have to get to it from below, by taking the pipes apart -- way beyond my capabilities. It was a Rocket Boy job. And until he got up and did it, I couldn't finish cleaning the kitchen and I certainly couldn't start baking -- I couldn't use the sink!

Rocket Boy eventually got up and took the sink apart -- found three screws -- but he also found a developing problem with the sink that required first one and then a second trip to the hardware store. He took Kid A with him, and I played Qwirkle with an unhappy Kid B while they were gone. I was very glad RB found the problem and fixed the pipe, because it's not the sort of thing you want to have fall apart in the middle of a Monday morning during the school year, but still. By the time he finished it was early afternoon and very hot, much too late to be baking any cakes.

So Kid A and I went to Safeway to buy me a cake. They had no lemon cakes, as I had planned to bake, only variations of chocolate. So we bought a chocolate fudge cake, sort of attractively decorated. Big whoop. It wasn't anything like what I wanted and had planned to make, but it played the role of birthday cake adequately. I decided to be mature about it and not complain, and I did pretty well, for me. We put 12 green candles on it, because 5 + 7 = 12, and I wrote happy birthday to myself, rather badly, in green icing.

We had the cake in the mid-afternoon, so that I could digest it before evening (I'm continuing to have awful stomach problems), and I opened my presents and cards. I got five cards: one from Rocket Boy and the kids, one from each sister, one from RB's brother, and one from an old friend, and I also got a lovely e-card. It's funny about birthday cards. I used to send cards to a LOT more people than I do now. Of course many of those were relatives who have since died, but a lot of them were friends, too. Nowadays I send cards regularly to exactly three friends and they do the same to me. One is my best old friend from college, one is a friend from grad school whose birthday is one week before mine, and one is an old boyfriend/long since become friend, who lives in Alaska. I like all of them, but I have other friends too, and I don't know why it's come down to just these three for sending and receiving birthday greetings.

This year I only heard from one of the friends, the one in Alaska. The one whose birthday is a week before mine is very likely traveling right now, possibly in China, and I will hear from her when she gets home again. But the third friend had breast cancer last year, and I haven't gotten a letter from her in several months (we still write letters, faithfully), and I'm worried about her. I know, if I were a normal person I'd pick up the phone, but I'm not, so there. I'll give her a few more weeks before I bug her. Sometimes she's just late.

Anyway, my birthday trundled along, not very much fun, but not disastrous either. And then it was dinnertime. I'd decided long before that dinner was just going to be leftovers, no fuss, and of course we'd already had my cake. But I realized, partway through, that I needed a little more. Kid A had wolfed down his hot dog and run out back to play with Z from next door before I even sat down. And this made me unhappy. Typing this now I feel silly -- why the heck did it matter? Why couldn't I just eat my hot dog and be done with it? But for some reason I felt unloved. So I got up, opened the door to the backyard, and told Kid A to get inside and Z from next door to go home. They complied, we all sat down to dinner again, and I started to cry. I would actually like to forget that I did this, but I think it's important for me to remember. I never cry anymore, no matter how awful things are. Most of the time I think I'm numb to all of it. But there I was, crying over my birthday dinner like a bratty little kid. It was still so hot, I was tired and stressed, and I cried for quite a while.

OK, so, thoughts for next year? Maybe I need to order my birthday cake. I can't make it the night before, because we're up late watching fireworks. Making it the day of seems problematic, though probably next year the sink won't break. It would be more expensive to order it, but not that bad. I'll think about it.

Scheduling an activity for the day might be a good idea. A trip to the art museum or the botanical gardens, maybe, something relatively easy like that. Something to make the day a little bit special. And finally, I need to remember that I need a little attention on my birthday. That's not such a terrible thing. Maybe the dinner should be more than leftovers -- and maybe I need to make it clear to the kids that we'll eat it together. Rocket Boy has many good qualities, but he doesn't understand about birthdays being special. If I need that for me, I have to find a way to make it happen. It is tricky, though, when what you need is for other people to pay attention to you. Other people tend to do what they want to do, not what you want them to do.

OK, done for another year, thank goodness. But the presents keep coming, and I'll do another post when they're all here.