Birthday etc.

First of all, my birthday - absolutely great.  I got up around nine, made myself a cup of tea, and sat in my pajamas working on a puzzle.  Rosie came over at ten, bringing me a blueberry bagel from Tim Horton's.  We hung out all day, watched a silly movie, split a roast beef sandwich and curly fries from Arby's for lunch. 

Then Michael came home from work.  He had planned the evening, the activities of which were to be a surprise to me.  He had warned me not to eat too much in the afternoon, as we'd be having dinner early, so when we left the house at 4:30, I was starving.  I told him that as we pulled out of the driveway, and he said, "How starving?  We have a forty-minute drive ahead of us."

So I ran back inside and filled a small container with leftover apple crisp (made by my sister, and delicious) which tided me over until we arrived at an adorably hip little Mexican restaurant downtown.  Have I mentioned how much I love Mexican food?  I love it, and I haven't found anywhere good near us.  We'd never been to this restaurant before (and it is quite arguably not near us, being 40 minutes away) but it was very good.  Their margaritas were excellent, too, and made with my favorite tequila.

On the way back, we took a detour to a Krispy Kreme store for fresh donuts, which were good beyond all sense.  Have I mentioned how much I love Krispy Kreme?  My ideal diet would consist of donuts and bacon, if there were some way to make those things good for you.

So, dinner and then donuts, and by then it was just past 6:30.  It crossed my mind that it was a little strange to have dinner so early, but I bought his excuse about wanting to miss traffic because I'm clearly an idiot.  We drove the fifteen minutes to our exit, and after we got off the expressway Michael suddenly decided that we should go get me new sunglasses, because my old ones had a loose screw and I had been constantly saying, "I should get new sunglasses."  When we got to Target he disappeared into the bathroom, where he spent approximately two hours.  Then in two minutes we picked my new sunglasses, and were on our way home.

Our garage was open and Rosie and Anthony's car was parked there.  That didn't surprise me at all because they do their laundry at our house, and Rosie had been doing some earlier, so I figured they had come over to finish that up before hanging out with us.  Honestly, I am completely clueless.  I walked in and they were sitting there, and that was, no kidding, the very first moment in the entire evening that I figured something was weird - because they were sitting in two chairs, closest to the door, instead of on the couch.  (Newlyweds always sit on the couch.)  I walked a few steps more into the room...

And a bunch of my friends popped out and yelled "Surprise!"

It was a really fun night.  My sister had made apple and blueberry pies, so yummy you can't even imagine.  We talked and laughed and played Balderdash.  I even got presents!  I was unduly excited (and this shows what a boring old married person I am, despite being only 23) by a set of new measuring cups.  Michael had melted my old 1/4 cup one by putting it on the bottom of the dishwasher too close to the heating element, and I had grown seriously tired of having to measure out four tablespoons whenever I needed a 1/4 cup.

It was a perfectly lovely birthday, quite possibly my best one yet.  My husband did a wonderful job of planning it - I think I will entrust all future birthdays to his care.

And... the goodness of this week was not over on Tuesday, because Wednesday I got to go and meet the lovely Jen and her daughter Li.

Jen, as you know if you read her blog, has been through the adoption process and is at the stage which I, as an adoption-hopeful, can only dream of wistfully: her daughter has been home for several months.  I wanted to meet Jen so that I could ask her a million questions about adoption, and also because she seems very cool on her blog.  So we arranged to meet at a local park.  We talked non-stop for almost two hours, while following Li from the slides to the swings and back again.  Jen is even cooler than I expected (and that's saying something) - funny, down-to-earth, sensitive and compassionate.  She answered all my questions with honesty and enthusiasm, and I learned a lot about adoption from talking to her.  But I think I learned even more just from watching her interact with her daughter.  Even though Jen and Li are unrelated biologically, they are related - mother and daughter all the way.  Jen and I talked about how people think of adoption as second-best, and all I could think was that such people clearly don't know adoptive families like Jen's.  Watching them, I thought, "How could biological parenthood possibly be any more real than this?"

I was enchanted by Li, who is a petite two-and-a-half and has enough personality for two people her size.  She's amazingly strong, as I learned when I helped her climb back up the slide, and has seemingly boundless energy and enthusiasm.  I can understand why Jen is so tired - I was kind of tired after only two hours with her.  But the joy of being around someone so tiny and beautiful and fun definitely made up for it.  Jen and I both agreed that we want to get together again soon.  I can't wait!

Comments

[Sarah]

Hooray! What a lovely birthday! It all sounds great, except for the Arby's part (my husband loves them, but I can't stand Arby's sandwiches, though the curly fries are OK). ;-)

And I'm so glad you got to meet Jen and Li. I hope all the info you got will help you with your future adoption.

MMMMmmmm... apple crisp... I don't know if DH would like it, but I should make some, husband be darned. It's been far too long.

[jen]

Aw, you made me cry.

Also, I'm glad you had a good birthday. Sounds terrific, and I can't wait to Michael.

[Hoo]

Yea! What a great bday! Props to Michael!
And so much to comment on, but I'm just stuck on the Arby's: we have no Arby's on LI anymore- I thought they had gone out of business. Now I'll be craving that horseradish sauce until I can go upstate or CT. Where apparently I can also find this Tim Hortons you Wolverine state folk speak of.
Any chance you'd share that margarita receipe? Mine is from the back of a bottle..

[Sonetka]

That sounds like a fantastic birthday - though reading about it is making me hungry :). And it's great that you got to meet Jen and Li in real life - I lurk on her blog a lot and am usually too lazy to comment, but they sound like fun. (I take it they don't live too far from you - that's a piece of luck in itself).

[jenex]

Argh. I can't wait to MEET Michael. I have no designs on your husband. I was just, you know, crying, so not paying attention to what I was writing. I'm a dork.

Sonetka -- hi! Speak up!

[KatieButler]

Happy Birthday! What a wonderful day. :)

[Katie]

I love Timmy Ho's - I'm glad you had such a nice birthday!

[Megan]

I am glad you had a good birthday. As much as possible I like to leave my birthday planning up to others--but have a backup. If I plan I get high expectations for things to be 'just right' so if I don't plan it I can be happy with whatever. One day I will entrust the responsiblity to a husband (well he'll be mine), but since I have yet to find one I'm glad I have good friends. :) I'm shooting for 25 to be my best birthday ever...I have 8 months to not plan!
Yay for birthdays, new friends, and good mexican food!

[Jennifer]

Sounds like a GREAT birthday. And like I said, for some reason, my brain just kept forgetting to add years to my life beyond 23. For almost 10 years, when someone asks my age, I want to say 23. It is the perfect age to be a woman I think.

Its all downhill from here.

I'm completely kidding.

Wild, you are, my dear.

[Jamie]

What a great day!