July was my birthday month. Right. Not just one day, but a whole month. When I was a kid there were no birthday parties. Oh, mom always made strawberry shortcake and often we got shrimp to eat. But no party. We were poor and lived pretty far away from most of the people I knew-which wasn’t many. In fact just recently I reached the conclusion that I must be an extrovert. However, as a child, shyness kept me from experiencing many things. Painfully shy is the term. But not now. So I was a shy extrovert then. I’m pretty much over the shyness, but it shows up occasionally.
As Andy Griffith said, we’re driftin’ here so back to the subject. At this point in life, birthdays could be a dreaded affair. Back when I turned thirty-nine, someone asked if I was planning to stay at that age. My response was if I was going to stop, I would have stopped at twenty-nine! The aging process can be disturbing—hence the billion dollar “look younger/stop aging” business.
But now being over fifty, there’s no denying this aging thing, so why not enjoy it? If my yoga buddies want to have a “birthday tea” after class one Saturday, I’m there. Friends want to go out to dinner, you betcha. Other friends make cakes but can’t deliver, sure I’ll come by and get it. Post a recipe on Facebook a month early with the words “Somebody make this for my birthday” and you’ll get several versions of that concoction. (That plan worked well!)
Face it, all this cannot happen on one day. Seems like only once per decade or so one can gather a large group of friends for an event. So taking things as they come, and not being picky about when or how, allows one to have a birthday month. This year was great. So many people helped make it special. The husband not only took me to a mall (one of our least favorite places), he went in the store with me to help pick out my gift—good, gold earrings. So all in all, birthday month 2013 was a grand success. And get this, I didn’t even have to give myself a party. The parties were given to me.
Elaine 8/1/13
As Andy Griffith said, we’re driftin’ here so back to the subject. At this point in life, birthdays could be a dreaded affair. Back when I turned thirty-nine, someone asked if I was planning to stay at that age. My response was if I was going to stop, I would have stopped at twenty-nine! The aging process can be disturbing—hence the billion dollar “look younger/stop aging” business.
But now being over fifty, there’s no denying this aging thing, so why not enjoy it? If my yoga buddies want to have a “birthday tea” after class one Saturday, I’m there. Friends want to go out to dinner, you betcha. Other friends make cakes but can’t deliver, sure I’ll come by and get it. Post a recipe on Facebook a month early with the words “Somebody make this for my birthday” and you’ll get several versions of that concoction. (That plan worked well!)
Face it, all this cannot happen on one day. Seems like only once per decade or so one can gather a large group of friends for an event. So taking things as they come, and not being picky about when or how, allows one to have a birthday month. This year was great. So many people helped make it special. The husband not only took me to a mall (one of our least favorite places), he went in the store with me to help pick out my gift—good, gold earrings. So all in all, birthday month 2013 was a grand success. And get this, I didn’t even have to give myself a party. The parties were given to me.
Elaine 8/1/13
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