July 07th, 2017

These two people have the absolute nerve to have birthdays this weekend!  Shocking!  Actually my birthday is Sunday and Tim's is Tuesday, but traditionally, we celebrate on the day in between.  This time, we are celebrating for an entire weekend and then dragging it into the next week too!  Woohoo!

This year is my Beatles Song Birthday.  (remember it?  "When I'm 64")  I'd say that is a significant enough number to make a big deal out of it.  In all honesty, I think every birthday is a big deal and should be celebrated.  Perhaps it's  because when I was a kid it seemed that we were always on the road on my birthday, either moving or travelling on vacation to one relative or another, which is how we vacationed back then. 

And of course, having a summer birthday, there was no school party.  Back in the stone age, when I was a kid and dinosaurs walked the earth, on a kids birthday, the moms would bring in cookies, or cupcakes or something else really bad for us.  Everyone would sing happy birthday, we would eat our treats and well, all of us summer kids never got to experience that.  I think as a kid, at least subconsciously, I must have felt a little birthday party deprived.  Clearly I've given it a lot of thought.

So I've kind of come up with a list of things that a really good birthday celebration must have:

1. Number one and most important on this hit parade:  It's all about the birthday person.  It really is.  No exceptions. If it's your birthday, everything that day is about you. Period.

2. Of course, to be absolutely fair, I am not a person who really likes being the center of a big crowd of people. But a small, comfortable, familiar crowd is fine. In fact it's awesome.  A small group of people that I really care about it absolutely perfect.  If that group consists of me and one other person, sometimes that is the best group of all.

3. And there should be at least one treat that a person rarely has, like cake. Or ice cream.  Or cake AND ice cream.  And for heaven's sakes, if a person is going to indulge, it should be the good stuff. The real deal. No fake, crappy substitutes.  And speaking as a person with Lactose Intolerance, if I'm going to suffer later, I want the suffering to be worthwhile, which means the ice cream must be primo.

4. There should be a few cards, some of them should have sparkles, some flowers, some funny, some touching or maybe thought provoking. I like cards.  I set them up on top of the big display cabinet in the living room and admire them for far to long afterwards.

5. There should be some sort of contact from people far away, whether it's phone calls or emails or texts or facebook posts or telepathic thoughts, heaps of good wishes from folks far away makes a birthday extra special.  To think that all of those people bothered to take the time to acknowledge your existence on your birthday shows that you matter in this life.  That's important.

6. There should be no chores on your birthday.  Not one single solitary gotta-do should be done by the birthday celebrant.  Those things can either wait a day to be done, or someone else needs to do them.  I'm immovable on this fact.

7. The birthday person gets to choose what or where to eat for dinner.  And no matter what they choose, that's what dinner is.  Doesn't matter what anyone else thinks.  It is the ONE day of the entire year where nobody else's likes/dislikes/or personal opinion should take precedence regarding food.

8. It should be a happy day.  Only positive comments and thoughts please.  It should be a day of smiles and laughter. If there is something negative or sad that needs to be said, keep it to yourself for one more day.  Not even boredom is allowed.

That's it.  Those are the required components for a perfect Birthday Celebration!

You will notice that "gifts" is not on the list.  While gifts are lovely, they are not required.  I think if I get all eight of the above items on my list, that is a pretty nice gift right there.

So that's our plan for the next four days.  Once we are done celebrating each other, we will resume are regularly scheduled programming. 

Meet you back here on Wednesday.  Have a great 4 days!!