Birthday Review

In the profound words of one birthday well-wisher; "41 is not all that special!"

After over sleeping, my birthday began like a king ... on the throne! (I'm assuming you do not want any details other than that)

With everyone running late, I opted for a breakfast of cold cereal, only to discover we had about 1/2 a cup of milk in the house. So, plan "B" was a quick pot of Cream of Wheat ... wouldn't thicken, turned out more like ... the water in the sink after doing dishes.

Rush the kids off to school ... hold it, they had to go back in to retrieve some crucial piece of paper or something. Unload with 2 minutes to spare as wife text me that she forgot to bring a hat for "Hat Day" and asking if I could bring one from the front closet. Return to the house, leaving toddler in running vehicle as I dash in to find a hat. All hats in front closet are ski caps--if I'm bringing a hat for Hat Day, it's going to be a COOL hat--so quick hunt for one of my two storage containers of unique hats, but how to choose one--grab 5. Back to the school, line up several great options to choose from and wife picks ... plain-ish ski cap.

Back at the house I unload 5 unchosen supremely cool, unique hats and toddler to find front door left open from the retrieval of the useless piece of paper earlier. (Ye, you are wanting to blame me for the open front door, however I entered through the garage to save time when retrieving ultra sweet head gear!)

You might assume (you know what that does right?) this is the point--having gotten wife and two of the three kids off to school--that I begin to enjoy my birthday. If you know anything about me, that would be a good guess because you know that my ultimate birthday would be spent in solitude. However, if that is what you are assuming, you clearly forgot that I still had a toddler with me! I couldn't even get some privacy on a return trip to the throne room! (You are pretty happy right about now that I haven't yet find the battery charger to my camera, aren't you?!?)

To this point in My Day I had not had a shower, time for devotions, a full meal and had received only one solid birthday wish--a text message from youth in Florida. In fairness, my wife did mumble in passing about halfway through the bustle of the morning; "I guess I should say 'Happy Birthday.'" My two oldest sons, my own flesh and blood refused to sing "Happy Birthday" to me when it was suggest by my wife ask she fled from the house! My only gifts were the 2 my youngest son ... made for me (OH to have that camera charger so I could share that 'joy'!). Come to think about it, maybe it was "Happy Birthday" he was 'singing' for over an hour as I was trying to put him to sleep!

Not to dis my youngest sons 'presents,' but the best gift I got may have been the hot shower I was finally able to take at 11:45 AM. Peace and quiet were too shortly lived as my special Joe's Corral lunch was interrupted when the baby woke up early and insisted that he have my immediate and undivided attention. Tranquility was only shoved further into the galaxy when the older two got home with cartoon-level energy that had been pent up for 8 hours.

I know what you are thinking and I would have "gone to the garden and eaten worms," but it was raining!

In honest hindsight, it wasn't all terrible. I did receive a card with a generous gift from my mother-n-law of all people. Ditched my wife with all 3 kids and took myself out to eat. Got the yearly call from my best friend, talked the whole drive home and hung up 2 minutes before Chuck started. The baby "called" my wife to bed about 11:20 PM and I was able to spend the last 30 minutes of my 41 year like I was secretly hoping to spend the whole day -- ALONE!

As Willy Shakespeare would say ... All's Well that Ends Well