People have been asking if I had a good birthday on Sunday. I did, even though it was a workday for me at the shop, so I didn’t get to just lounge around and be fed grapes, alas.
But there were many lovely moments:
– Sunday morning co-writing had several people who helped me focus and motivate; I drafted a chunk of an essay that I’m happy with
– AND, one of our regulars brought her daughter (who is shockingly capable of working quietly on her own at age 4 or so), and on one of our ten-minute breaks, said daughter mentioned that she liked monsters, and I asked if she’d read The Monster at the End of this Book, and she HADN’T, and I had it in store (I brought in several of my kids’ favorite books, so please do feel free to bring small children with you and have them pull out a book and plop down on the cushions or the couch and read as much as they like), and I got to do a dramatic reading of Grover’s book for her (and everyone else), and it was much fun and very satisfying and we laughed a lot. That is my FAVORITE picture book. It’s so meta.
– Kavi volunteered to come in and give me a break, which was very sweet of her, so I said yes, and she covered the store for a few hours, which meant when my friend Nara stopped by, she could take me out to Publican for a nice iced chai and a good hour of natter
– Kavi also assembled my new lamp — I don’t mind assembling furniture generally, but it’s always nice to have someone do it for you! That corner was too dark. Much better!
– Kavi also modeled some of my jewelry and took photos, which I have to review and edit, but you’ll likely see them soon, and that was very nice of her
– and someone brought truffles and tea to co-writing (I didn’t know Trader Joe’s did such fancy truffles), and someone else brought fizzy cranberry-apple cider to book club, and someone from knitting wrote me the loveliest card saying all kinds of nice things about me — writing birthday cards is a little bit of a lost art, and I’d like to do better with that myself…
– when I got home, Kev and the kids had picked up yummy desserts from Sugar Fixé — that passionfruit one is incredibly tasty, and the key lime one is very tart! and they sang me happy birthday — all of them carrying a tune just fine, but none of them in the same key, and I admit, I kind of lost it laughing at that.
So, good food, cute kids, deliciousness, writing progress, conversation with friends, a terrific book, voices raised in song, praise, and lots of laughter. Oh, and someone brought their adorable dog into the store, so I also got lots of doggie pets. What more could you ask of a birthday?
Although the birthday is not actually done, as Kevin gave me a Star Trek game that he still has to play with me at least once in order for it to count, and Kavi is taking me somewhere for a surprise on Thursday, and my friends and I were supposed to go to dinner on Tuesday, but half of them were out sick, so we’re going to try to reschedule for next week.
Birthday week is a thing, right? Birthday week-and-a-half? Birthday month, perhaps. But it’s going quite nicely, at any rate.
This is 55. I take on too much and I work too hard and I am a little stress-bunny with a ridiculous to-do list most of the time, and I am drowning in e-mail and messages and feeling very guilty about how behind I am on those, and the political situation is almost more than I can bear to think about these days…
….and yet, there is so very much in this world that I love, and so very many people I love (very grateful for all of you reading this as well!), and amazingly, there seem to be many people who love me.
I feel very lucky.
