Birthday Recap

Khubla looks at my chocolate wine.
It was perfectly paired with a
Krispy Kreme donut for my nightcap.

I should be doing a post about a great visit some friends from Nashville made to me and a friend from Laguna Beach, but instead I'd decided to leave that post for another time (it's late. it can't hurt to be later, right?) and do a birthday recap.

Yesterday I turned 34 years old. When I was younger, I thought that was old. And even on some days now, I feel it is. But on the by and by, I don't see myself as old. Mostly because people only think themselves old when they're really, really old. And I think that's appropriate.

I decided a few years back after a particularly rough birthday in the office that working on your birthday is balls. And now unless there's a very very good reason, I don't do it. Even if my birthday is on a Tuesday like this year. How often do you get a random Tuesday off with nothing else around it? Rarely. So I enjoyed it and pretended I was independently wealthy and didn't have to work.

First I slept in until I damn well wanted to and then got treated to delicious breakfast of Crossanwiches (yes, plural. It was my birthday, dammit) from my loving husband. Then I leisurely got ready and went for a mani-pedi. The place I went to treats you kind of like you're a car in the pits at the Daytona 500, so I had two people working on my talons. They were so talented that they had the massages timed so they were rubbing me down at the same time. It was heaven.

Roses from my awesome husband

Then I grabbed Chef and we went shopping. I got to go to Sephora (and thanks Jack for the gift card) which is annual tradition because I like to get my free gift, and some fun goodies. I got a lipstain I had been lusting after and the BEST smelling peony-scented lotion from Philosophy. Then Chef gave me his present. It was my favorite because I wanted it really badly and it's AWESOME, but I'm not telling what it is because too many people could read too much into it. Let's just say it is an technology gadget and leave it at that.

Then we got Krispy Kreme donuts (because donuts can be better than cake some times), and went to eat at my favorite sushi place. In between, I got to check the wonderful birthday wishes everyone left on my Facebook page. (Honestly sometimes I think that's the best part of Facebook).

To cap it off, I watched a screener of Silver Linings Playbook. It was good, but I probably would've liked it better had I seen it before all the hype.

All in all a great balance of my favorite things, my favorite people and relaxation.

And then I went back to work today :). Until next year!

Our Own Little Walk

I called my stepdad this morning and he and his special lady, Sara, were walking in the rain. It was the first year that I can remember that the Evansville Race for the Cure got rained on.

It was hard being here instead of there, but Chef and I had a great walk on the beach this morning. It was not sunny at all, but not too bad. A bad day on the beach is better than most any other day, right?  Here are some pictures and thoughts to go with them.

I wrote this and almost immediately it got washed away by a wave.
So this is take two.

There were so many surfers out this morning. I told Chef I wanted to try surfing.
 His response: "We'll sign you up for classes next spring."
 I think I really want to do it!

The beginning of our not quite 5K in honor of my mom.

A view from Santa Monica towards Venice beach.

I kept saying to Chef "Let's just walk to the next lifeguard station."
That only worked for so long.

Walking From a Distance

My mother gave me this picture in October of 1999. She had just done her first Race For The Cure event as a survivor.

"I'm the one in pink," she said with a smile. Then went on to talk about how nice the event was, how many people were there and how she liked walking with other survivors.

"Why didn't you call me?" I said from my campus apartment at IU. "I would've loved to have come down and walked with you."

"We'll walk together next year," she said.

My mom died in August of 2000. Just a few weeks before the next Komen walk. It was too hard to walk that first year. Too much anger. Why did all of those ladies get to parade in with their survivor pink hats on, but my mom couldn't?

But the next year, my stepdad and I did the walk. I even got to walk with my friend Amanda, her mom (who would also die far too young from cancer) and her sisters. And from that first walk, I've been back every year. Wherever I've been I've made an effort to get back to walk with Jack. We have others who join us for the route and they're always welcomed guests, but it's really our time together. Time to remember my mother, his wife, but also a time for me to remember how much my step dad means to me. He was so key in helping me keep my shit together at a time when I was trying not to fall completely apart.   He doesn't get Christmas or Father's Day or any other holiday for us alone, but the walk has always been our special day.

Except this year, I have to walk it from a distance. I knew it would probably catch up to me one of these days and this year's the year. I just couldn't get from California to Indiana to do it, but that doesn't mean I'm not doing it.

So tomorrow morning I'll be up with Chef at the Santa Monica beach walking our 5K at the same time that everyone in Evansville is doing their 5K. If you're at the walk, text me. Send me pictures. Walk in honor of my mom and everyone else whose lost the fight or is battling breast cancer.

Because you never know when there might not be a next year.

My I Don't Have To Run Day

When I was a kid, I dreaded Sundays. There was never anything on TV (It was before I became a football fan) and it was the day that we didn't really do anything. Now Sundays are my favorite day of the week. And this one particularly.

Since I had yesterday free, I was able to do my errands then AND had a fabulous night with my stepdad Jack, his fiance Sara and Chef. Jack and Sara came into town for my birthday, and we went to Ruth's Chris. It was my first time there and will not be my last. The steak was awesome and covered in butter. Which makes me think back to Julie & Julia and the revelation that butter makes everything better. (Except for your arteries, but that's a different scenario all together). Everything was delicious, down to Jack's Banana Cream Tart. Yummy.

Then we went to the Patterson House, which has become a frequent haunt of mine lately. Chef and I went there on Tuesday night for our late Valentine's celebration. It was just as good this time, as well. Plus Jack had said that he's never been to a place like it. When you can introduce him to something new, you've found a good spot.

But I digress. After a lovely evening, I was happy to climb into bed. Where I've been spending and plan on spending the majority of the day. No errands. Only have to put finishing touches on something for work. I only ventured out of the bedroom this early because Chef told me that I needed to watch The Time Traveler's Wife so he could delete it. The joke's on him, though, because it's not where it's supposed to be and I can't watch it. I did, however, manage to watch 6 episodes of My Life as Liz. I have to say that the promos made me uneasy and the fact that it was on MTV made me even more uneasy, but it's a pretty good show. Enough to spend two hours watching, I guess.

So now, it's back to bed and maybe later I'll make some taquitos. That's pretty much taxing the limits of my ambition for the day.

Last of the Birthday Celebrations

This weekend, my stepfather and his fiance visited me for my birthday. It was officially the last of the birthday celebrations and just like the others, it was wonderful and special. Jack came down and met Chef and I at our apartment. We introduced him to the cats (particularly Genghis who is the most social) and had a great time.

One special thing that happened was the passing along of my mother's engagement ring. I have the ring my father gave her. Or actually Chef has it to be utilized in the melding of many different rings that will eventually make up the engagement ring he chooses to give me.

However, for many reasons, I decided to keep my mom's engagement ring from Jack as it is. It is a gorgeous ring and one that she was very proud of for many reasons. Mostly because it symbolized the love she got from a wonderful man who made her happy. Naturally, I cried when he gave it to me. I thought of the last time I'd seen it on her hand. It was on her hand in the casket at the showing. I remember the car ride Jack and I took together on our way up to the funeral.

"That ring is yours," he said. "Your mom told me to take it back, but I wouldn't think of it. It's yours now or whenever you want it."

I didn't want it then. I was 21 and while I appreciated the ring as it had been between Jack and mom, I couldn't appreciate what it really meant. I hadn't been in a relationship and also knew that I wasn't mature enough to take care of it. So we decided that I would get it at 30. To make the birthday even more special and to give me time to experience all the things I would need to to give the ring value to me.

I knew when I opened it up and the tears flowed that I had made the right decision. I knew that it would mean something different to me than it had my mother. With her, it had meant someone who valued her so much that he would do anything for her. Even celebrate her daughter's 30th birthday when she couldn't be there to do it herself.

To me, it represents the independence she found right before she got it, the security she felt with it and that the only two women that have worn it were strong enough to realize they didn't need someone to rely on, but were open to love nonetheless.