Today is my 45th birthday.
To be honest, I always thought that this one would be hard for me as this year marks just FIVE more years before I turn the big 5-0. In reality, it just feels like another birthday. It’s special – they all have been and will be – but nothing to freak out about. Just another year on this planet.
I’ve been wrong before, always believing the hype that 30 would be hard or 40 would be hard. None of them were. They were all epiphany birthdays for me. I learned something about myself, had dreams that pointed me in a different direction – they were all life changing, but not because of the number. Maybe I lucked out that way.
When we moved to Florida (we being me and my mother), we planned to spend our birthdays (just two days apart) at the Happiest Place on Earth. And we did, for a couple of years. But then COVID hit. And now, with the state of the world, with the way that people behave, it just doesn’t seem like the Happiest Place on Earth anymore. The excitement of going there just isn’t a thing for me this year. Maybe I’ll change my mind once we are there (that’s the plan for tomorrow and Thursday). I’m hoping I will.
This year I just wanted a quiet birthday, so today I’m spending it with my mom. I woke up this morning to her in the kitchen trying yet another new recipe for scones – I cannot imagine a better birthday breakfast than scones. We’re heading off in a minute to see my father (he’s buried not far from where we live) and then stopping at the grocery store to pick up a few last minute things for dinner (she’s trying a recipe she found for General Joe’s Chicken tonight) and dropping off a small load at Goodwill before heading back here. Just a quiet, lazy day. To me, that’s perfection.
Two days ago, she had her birthday. I think she wanted the same thing because every time I asked her what she wanted to do or what she wanted for her birthday, she changed the subject or said she didn’t really want anything. I’m always going to get her something, though. Unfortunately, the one gift (the big gift) I purchased did not arrive in time for her birthday, so I had to switch a few things around, and her Mother’s Day gift became her birthday gift, her birthday gift will be her Easter gift, her Easter gift her Mother’s Day gift haha. A bracelet that had a few mother charms on it, something I hope shows her how much she means to me. A necklace – well, two, one for her and one for me, each with two little hearts on it. (There was a theme, with hearts, so I guess the change was meant to be – there’s always a reason for everything.) I made her breakfast of some of her favorite things.
I honestly didn’t expect gifts at all. I never do. To me it’s not about the gifts. It’s about the celebration. Gifts break, they disappear, they are forgotten, but the memories – the memories are what is important. But I should know that my mother will always find a way to make my birthday as special as I try to make hers. And as I open the gifts each year, I laugh at how much she really does know me, after how many years of thinking she would never understand. This year was no different. A handheld vacuum (it’s pretty awesome), which is something I have been wanting, and a really neat ceramic tea mug (with strainer and cover) that I can use at work. Perfect gifts. Always perfect gifts.
Even the ladies at work got involved. Surprised me. Showed me the birthday love on my last day at work before I went on vacation. Totally unexpected. But the way things should be. (I have purchased a gift for each person with a birthday so far this year and plan to continue that tradition until the end of the year and beyond. Not just as a manager, but as part of the team, I feel it is important to celebrate the day they were born.)
A gift bag with some of my favorite snacks from Jennifer. A container of mini-cupcakes from Nicole. (Blue is my favorite color.) And of course I shared.
Even one of our regulars got involved. Her husband wrote a book and after we discussed it one day while she was in there shopping, I purchased it from Amazon. After it arrived, I took it to work and asked her if she could bring him up there so I could get him to autograph it. And he did!! Talk about a perfect birthday gift. (She also brought me a box of tea her friend sends her from England.)
All in all, turning 45 is pretty awesome. I have my health. A career that I love. Great friends. A wonderful mother. Yeah, it’s another year older, but eh… the older you get, the better you get, right? Like bourbon haha.
Beautiful Screamer 