Tuesday, Feb. 07, 2006 - 11:56 p.m.
It has been much much too long since I've written. No good or specific reason. There's even a few specific things I wanted to mention. So, catch-up, part one - Birthday:
The weekend of my birthday turned out better than it started.
There had been a deep sort of insecurity/misplaced feeling in me at that time. I felt as though I was not accomplishing anything and that the possibility of ever doing so was beyond me. I the idea of my age was actually bothering me this once, because I felt so far from where I wanted to be in so many ways (job, living situation, etc) and also so far from ever attaining it.
This was compounded by a feeling that everyone had forgotten. This isn’t really true, of course. I heard from a few people. My family called me the day of, Denver and Devon sent me e-cards, I got a myspace comment from Nathan, Liz, and Terra. But most of this came later. By Friday I was still pretty much hearing nothing. Plus, one of my closest friends here opted to go to a bbq someone was throwing before even asking if I was doing something for birthday that fell on a Saturday and another close friend completely forgot.
So by the time Jairo got to my place at the end of work Friday, I was unhappy and emotional. All of the other things in my life had been building in me and amassed into one big bad feeling, and it seemed like it all hinged on how he was going to acknowledge this day. Because, I just needed someone to make it special.
And when he said something about needing to work on something for work that weekend, it just hit me in a bad way. I thought he'd planned nothing and not thought of it at all. I started sniffling.
That's when he said "and bring something nice to wear because I'm taking you out for your birthday." He came over and hugged me and asked what was wrong. And he admitted he didn't know what to do for my birthday but he wanted to do something. He thought Hibachi one night and making the other day whatever I wanted.
In his honesty, I felt better. No, he didn't do some romantic surprise celebration, but he had thought of it. In his mind the sweetest thing he could do is let me pick. So I asked if we could go to a play.
On Saturday, the actual date of my birthday, we went shopping. Wandering around I got calls from my whole family; immediate and a few extended - uncle jimi, grandpa, aunt wilma)and even one from Thomas in Germany.
It was a really nice day followed by an evening of getting dresed nice and going to hibachi. I love hibachi. There's something fun and theatrical about it and it tastes great. It's one of the few experiences in life you readily share with strangers, clapping and laughing with each other when the chef flips food at each in turn. The experience was marred somewhat by some irritating people on a cell phone at the table.
But the day made me feel cared about, and I guess that's what I really needed.
Sunday we headed into the city to see a play. There were two choice in my mind, but the time made the choice for us. We arrived 5 minutes too late to see Lion King and headed to Avenue Q.
Avenue Q is a really fun play to watch. You find yourself watching the puppets as much as the puppetteers (sp?). They really give them life. The songs are catchy and cute. The stories fairly basic about life not living up to expectations sometimes, but enjoyable nonetheless. I laughed a bunch. We really had a good time.
The weekend went beyond my expectations. It was a really great birthday, even though it was noticed by fewer people than many past ones.
