KirstenL4W

It’s my birthday today. I’m not one to want to go all out on my birthday.  I’m just not that kind of attention seeker, and I don’t need to make people uncomfortable by conspicuously bringing up the fact that it’s my birthday so that they will wish me a happy birthday.  Being remembered is nice, but I like for people to do it on their own.

Having had some disastrously bad birthdays when I was in my 20s, I don’t have such high hopes for the day.  I hate surprise parties, and I don’t need a wild night out on the town.  I’m not a wild night on the town kind of gal to begin with, so I don’t think my birthday should be any different.  For me, I just like to open whatever cards I get in the mail from far-away family and spend some time with a few close friends.  As long as everyone knows not to sing to me in public, we’ll be fine.

I’m not sure yet what the plans for today are, other than work.  Usually on Thursday evenings a bunch of us all get together and meet at the local watering hole, so I’m sure we’ll be doing that as well.  Just a typical Thursday, May 29.

Read all about famous events, births and deaths on this day at Wikipedia.

Today is my 2nd blogiversary.  I never knew when I started that I would be here for so long - usually I don’t make it that long with things, as I tend to lose interest and move on.  I admit that this past year has seen me less dedicated to blogging, and more dedicated to Boyfriend, but I wouldn’t change that for the world.  I like having my blog, but I love having Boyfriend.  But he does enjoy my blog, which he reads in between raids at his Silly Little Game.

I do have things that I’d love to be able to do with this blog, but they’d require me quitting my job and becoming a hermit.  I don’t network this blog as much as I could, but I’ve also recently become satisfied with what I’ve got here.  I’ve read some article lately that have to do with being satisfied with the size of your blog and the number of comments, and while I do get a bit disappointed when I don’t get any comments, I’m happy with my blog’s size the way it is.   I also think I’ve gotten better at the blog-life balance, and that is pretty cool.

So what’s in store for the next year?  Well, you’ll continue to hear about me, and I might write the occasional blogging article as well.  I’ll continue with my Music on Mondays, and I’ll do my best to make sure this blog doesn’t hit the Terrible Twos.

Thursday was Boyfriend’s birthday. He thinks he’s old, but really, he’s not, so he just needs to get over that. Anyway, I was absolutely forbidden to tell any of our friends that his birthday was coming up. He did not want a big deal made and did not want to be surprised. Well, I got around that, and without breaking any laws that he set for me. Hahahahahahahaha!

I may have mentioned that Boyfriend’s ex-gf was instrumental in getting us together. We are all friends, so that made it easy to plan things behind his back. A little over a month ago, we were all at a party and I had some time to chat with her. I asked her if she knew when Boyfriend’s birthday was, and she gave me the date, so I knew she had the right answer. I then told her that I was under no circumstances allowed to tell anyone about it. She got that ear-to-ear shit-eating grin on her face and said she had it covered. Ha! Now I was able to make a big deal about it without breaking any rules or doing much of anything in the way of planning. I knew the rest of our friends would run away with it, because that’s the kind of pals they are.

As for a more private celebration, I new there had to be a gift. I had a few ideas of what to get him, but wasn’t having much luck finding what I wanted. No worries, it still leaves me ideas for the holidays. Anyway, I was just checking one last store at the mall when I found a Pouring Shield for the Kitchen-Aid mixer. Boyfriend has a Kitchen-Aid, which if any of you have used one is the greatest stand mixer ever. Boyfriend likes to bake, but makes a horrible mess because food is always flying out of the bowl. The pouring shield prevents this, so his gift ended up being one of those utilitarian things that makes (my) life easier. (I’m the one who does the cleaning, but let me tell you, cleaning up last night after he made cookies was much less of an ordeal than cleaning up after he made pie a few weeks ago.)

Now don’t go thinking that I’m the kind of girlfriend who gifts The Greatest Boyfriend of All Time with a little hunk of plastic and calls it good. Oh, no. No, the next part of his gift was designed to make him deliriously happy. Since they say that the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach, I took him out for dinner.

Before I go any further, let me tell you a few things about Boyfriend and me. I am from New England - suburban, bordering on rural. Adventurous eating is something that is just not done where I come from. I have an aunt and uncle who travel quite a bit and they eat weird stuff when they travel, and my step dad is known in the family to be a human garbage disposal. But other than that, our diets are really quite basic - the All-American, 1950’s Betty Crocker cookbook kinds of diets. Boyfriend, on the other hand, is from California. He eats weird stuff like avocados and sushi and other weird California stuff. So finding a happy medium is not always easy when either one of us is craving food from our respective back home area. Boyfriend thinks I don’t try enough new things (read: stuff he likes), but he’s slowly coming to the realization that I am one of the most adventurous eaters in my family and is starting to cut me some slack.

Back to dinner out. In the ultimate sacrifice of making my man happy on his birthday, I decided that I was going to choke down a piece of fish bait take him out for sushi. Boyfriend loves sushi, whereas I, coming from Massachusetts in particular, believe that there are only 2 ways to eat fish: beer-battered, deep fried and covered in ketchup, or baked/broiled/fried with lots of breadcrumbs and butter on the top. Either way it is served with a potato of some sort - either fries or baked/mashed. But do note that the fish is COOKED in both circumstances. Cooked in normal ingredients. Sushi, as most of you probably know, is raw fish wrapped in rice and seaweed and stuffed with other weird stuff like avocado, which seems to be in every freaking different kind of sushi there is. But no matter, it was going to make him happy for me to try it, so that is what I was going to do.

I was going to do a bit of a fake out on him by parking in the Red Lobster parking lot, which is next door to the fish bait sushi place that Boyfriend has mentioned. But before we got there, he figured it out, so dammit, fake-out cancelled. No matter. I had already done some reconnaissance on the place and saw that they had teriyaki bowls, so I would still have something to eat. We got there, sat down, and Boyfriend started going over the menu with me. There are some varieties that have cooked seafood in them, which was good since I am still completely repulsed by the thought of eating raw seafood. To me it’s on par with eating raw chicken or pork, so that was a no-go. Boyfriend selected some with cooked crab in it. Not a huge fan of crab on its own, but I suppose if I had committed to this, then that was it.

Let me tell you something else about sushi. When it arrives at your table, it is cut into bit-sized pieces. Well, bite-sized if you have a ginormous mouth like say, Julia Roberts, or you have a flip-top head like that cartoon guy in the Reach Toothbrush commercial. I do not have a huge mouth (no comments from the peanut gallery, please. I am talking about physical size here.) When I was getting braces on at the ripe old age of 16, I had to have not only my 4 wisdom teeth pulled, but also all 4 of my first bicuspids removed to make it all fit properly. My mouth is small. Individual pieces of sushi are not. They are not dainty, like the tiny 1-inch petit-fours you see on fancy dessert plates. No, they are huge 2-inch diameter rolls that are 1-inch high. How does one delicately shove it all in their mouth at one time? I didn’t want to appear that I was spewing sushi all over the table for any reason. I wanted to be polite and eat it all and actually have it go down. The giant piece was not going to do, so I cut it in half. I put it on my fork (because by now it would have fallen apart had I attempted to use chopsticks), and held it in front of my face for about 10 minutes before I finally got up the nerve to just shove it in.

It was not terrible. It wasn’t great, either. The crab meat was a bit overwhelming, and the rest of it didn’t leave much of an impression on me either way. Boyfriend had a look on his face that was mostly amused and of course totally in love with me for doing this for him. I finished chewing it and chased it with large amounts of Diet Coke, and ate some teriyaki, which, by the way, was really not that good. After a short time I finally got up the nerve to try the other half. This one didn’t have as much crab meat in it, so I thought it would be easier, but no, I was wrong. This one had a giant blob of cream cheese in it. Have I mentioned that I hate cream cheese? So this piece was worse because of that vile, tangy substance gluing itself to the deepest reaches of my mouth and refusing to budge. A refill on my Diet Coke finally fixed that.

The rest of the evening was really awesome, since it was more natural and I really had nothing to do with it (other than putting the pieces in place that allowed the cat to let itself out of the bag). We met our friends at our usual Thursday night gathering. There were a lot more people there than usual, and the vibe was really great, which is just not something that can be planned. One of our friends brought a cake, a delicious black forest cake, and we talked and laughed and had a great time. I really couldn’t have done a better job, because like I said, the vibe of the evening was really natural. On the way home I told Boyfriend how I got Ms. X in on it, and he was quite impressed with my sneaky, devious nature while still following his wishes.

So that was it - I ate sushi, and it wasn’t terrible. Boyfriend thinks I like it, because he says my face gave me away. I wouldn’t go that far. I might try it again, perhaps in a better quality place that has really good teriyaki, but I can assure you, like all Asian and Asian-inspired foods, it will not be something that I crave. But I ate it, and I did it because I love my Boyfriend and wanted him to have the bestest birthday ever. I don’t know if it was the best birthday ever, but he did say that it was a very good birthday, so mission accomplished.

…Birthday! Two people who I adore are celebrating birthdays, and they both happen to be redheads. First of all is my niece Messy J, who turned 8 today. Happy Birthday Messy J! Aunty misses you and I hope you like the present I sent you. Hugs and kisses!

← Messy J on her First Birthday

And of course Happy Birthday to one of my best blogging friends - Macoosh!!! With your family visiting and you looking forward to another great year of studies in Ireland, I know you’ll have a wicked awesome birthday and a fabulous year.

Happy….not so much about my car. When we tried to go out Friday night, just a week after getting it out of the shop and a few hours after getting home from work, my car would not start. Boyfriend and I went to the auto parts store to get a new battery, because Boyfriend said it needed a new battery (he’s like, really smart about cars and stuff), so we put the battery in and… Nothing. Well, I got the dash lights and stuff, which were brighter than before, and the door open chime was livelier than ever, but the engine did not turn over. Tomorrow morning I need to call my new BFF Bill at Ford Country and make a date with him. After that, you should be hearing from me a bit more often because I have a few posts saved in draft mode just for you.

What a week. I quit my job last Friday, which I’m kinda glad about because I was so freaking bored. I mean, you saw the frequency of my posts increase, and they were all posted during work hours. So, needing something to do, I went out in search of a new job. If anyone in Vegas has any connections looking for an admin, let me know.

Saturday Boyfriend and I moved my stuff. Ugh. Next time we hire someone. I’m still not all completely unpacked, but it’s been tough trying to fit all my stuff in with his. I’ve been going thru and making decisions on what can go, and honestly, I feel fine with that. I start getting anxious sometimes when I think about all the schtuff I have, but in this day and age how is it possible to do with less? I mean, I have a computer, and with that goes lots of cords, printer, modem, paper, speakers, blah, blah, blah. Next time I get a new computer, it will be a laptop because at least then I won’t need such a big freaking desk to put everything on. Anyhoo, yeah. Just trying really evaluate what I need and don’t.

And one more thing:

Happy Birthday, Dad.

It’s my 1 year blogiversary today. Who would’ve thought that one year ago today, when I was starting this blog, that I’d see the one year mark? This is post #246, so that’s approximately one post every day and a half. Ok, so I haven’t been keeping up with that rate lately, but when I do get the urge to blog, I make up for it with multiple posts in one day. But then again, I have a life now so I can’t spend ALL my free time blogging.

It’s amazing what having a blog can do. I’ve made a good friend in Macoosh, keep in touch with old friends and just keep myself entertained. It allows my friends and family to keep up with my goings-on also. I can’t imagine my life without a blog.

Here’s a birthday pic you might remember - Bubba’s 2nd birthday. Remember when we got him banging his silverware chanting, “We want cake”?

I hope you have a terrific birthday, and I hope all your wishes come true (though from the looks of it to me they already have!)

Love,
Kirsten

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AJ!!!!!

I hope you had an awesome birthday. For those who want to wish AJ a happy birthday, stop by her blog to say Happy Birthday.

I’m still at my mom’s house trying to figure out how I’m gonna get to spend time with everyone before I leave and of course eat all the awesome food that I can’t get back in Vegas. The food might have to wait, unless I want to gain 20lbs on this trip, and to my friends and family, if I can’t get to you all, don’t worry, there will be a next time.

Yesterday we had the party for the kids, which was pretty good. Bubba and Messy J liked the stuff they got, and we watched Benchwarmers after everyone left. It was funnier than I thought it would be.

This morning Boo woke me up early and of course my mom said I should have just left him there, but I was sleeping in the same room and I can’t sleep with him looking over at me and laughing. So I got him up, changed his diaper and put his slippers on. Then we went over to see if Bubba was awake yet, which Boo had to test by sticking his fingers up Bubba’s nose. Bubba wasn’t awake, so we went downstairs and had some juice. Boo watched age appropriate television while I read the Sunday paper - only the good parts, of course. Then I got ready for church, and since my mom suddenly decided to go, we had to wait for her, which meant that we were late because my mom is never on time. My uncle said he has never been on time going to church with my mom. So we were late, but we made it so I got most of the important parts of the service, then got to catch up with my old Pastor and some old friends at church. Mom had to take the scenic route home (what she calls a “shortcut” but it involves more twists and turns than the shortest, most direct route).

After church I headed out to visit with my friend Officer Friend. Haven’t seen him in a year, so that was nice. We’ve known each other for 14 years now, way too long. He’s got a 2 year old! His kid is so big, and really really cute too. He also has Dad’s receeding hairline. Mommy stayed with the kid and Officer Friend and I went to Vinnie T’s for some awesome fettucine alfredo. We called my mom and teased her about it, but I brought her some leftovers. And the garlic and bread - mmmmmmm! A whole head of soft, sweet roasted garlic that can be spread on fresh focaccia bread. Oh the love. After we stuffed ourselves silly on ‘fredo, we checked out the mall, which Officer Friend criticized up and down. He used to be maintenance director there, and since he left things are so not up to his standards. We shopped a little bit, and I found some paintballs in the sports store that were on sale so I picked those up for Bubba, since he’s really into paintballing. After the shopping we went to the movies and saw World Trade Center. I thought it was done really well, just a very human story that focused on the confusion of that day and the hope that everyone had coping with the unknown. After we left the mall I got to drive Officer Friend’s new Outback that is definitely not standard issue. He’s got it so tricked out, I got it up to 90 on the highway without any effort at all, and you can barely feel it. My little car, on the other hand, starts to cry when I get it up that high. After that I got into the Mustang that Dad let me drive during my visit and took a bit of a scenic route back to my mom’s, checking out all the changes along the way.

So now I’m back, Bubba really liked his paintballs, Messy J is just about to go to bed, Boo is in bed already, and Mom and Sis are watching Blue Collar Comedy. I’m not really feeling like that sort of thing right now, so I’ll probably hang out down here by the computer for a little while longer then go to bed. I think I’m finally on Eastern Time, thanks to Boo getting me up at 6:15 this morning.

Tomorrow I’m taking Bubba to see the Ballad of Ricky Bobby, then going out with Belching Biker Babe in the evening sometime. Tuesday I don’t have plans yet for during the day, but I am going to visit a very good friend that I kinda lost touch with over the years. We talked for about an hour last night, which was really nice. We were really close friends in high school and college, then life happened and we fell out of touch. But my mom ran into her one day and gave her my email address, and we have been slowly catching up since then. She got a blog, so keeping up was easier, then I got a blog, and thanks to the internet we’re getting back there. So Tuesday night will be dinner to catch up, meet her husband and of course her handsome little man, whom I’ve seen so many pictures of on her blog. I can’t wait. Then Wednesday I’ll head home, without any liquids or gels in my carryon bag. That ought to be interesting - I just hope I can get my chapstick on board.

I just wanted to wish you a Very Happy Birthday! Enjoy your day off, and I wish you all the happiness your heart can hold in the coming year - I know you’ll have that because your dream is coming true already! Enjoy your special day.

Kirsten

Photo courtesy internet search

First of all, I’d like to say Happy Birthday to my niece, Messy J. Even though she’s only 7 and has no clue what a blog is and would be bored silly if she ever ready my blog, I hope she gets the good birthday vibes. I did call her, and she sounded soooo sad and then said she wanted to get off the phone, so she hung up on me. That’s ok, it’s only a matter of time before she won’t ever get off the phone. Plus, I get to see her next week - yay!

I came across a woman the other day who made me feel really good about my body image. As I was waiting to exit a parking lot, a woman walking on the sidewalk is exactly the kind of person that someone with body image blues should see. She was about 4 feet wide, wearing a long skirt and red shirt. The shirt in no way would be considered cropped or belly baring, however, her belly was flopped way over the waistband of her skirt, and was flapping about violently with each step. My flab still continues to defy gravity, so it left me feeling really good.

I chatted online with Bubba this morning. It was weird, my mom had him signed in on her computer because his AIM account automatically signs in and she has no clue how to change it. So I was chatting with her, she took a pee break, then I went to say something else to her and all of a sudden was talking with Bubba, who was at home and not at his Amma’s house. Bubba is quickly monopolizing all my vacation time. First it was Canobie, now he wants me to take him to a movie too. I’m sure he’ll think of many more things to do between now and then. Not to mention I have tons of family and friends to visit and only 6 short days to get it all in. Next time I definitely have to take a longer vacation.

I did get up on time this morning, and got to work on time. It didn’t feel good, but not any better than sleeping in. My eyes were still a scary shade of bloodshot red. I never got my salad made last night due to my blogging obsession but I did manage to bring lunch today, so I won’t have to spend money. I’m not working tonite so the plan is to go straight home, blog for a little while, eat dinner, watch Seconds From Disaster on the National Geographic channel, then go to bed. I do love my blog, I keep it up nearly all day long just so I can stare at it and constantly check my favorite blogs for updates.

Ok, time to tear myself away from this thing long enough to get a little bit of work done. I’ll be back later, you can count on that!

My birthday is coming up, and while I was reading a blog that mentioned something about a birthday, I was reminded of one time I decided to celebrate a friend’s birthday. It was his 26th, not a noteable birthday by any means. But since Officer Friend is approximately 2 months and 23 days older than I am, I decided to make fun of the fact that he was aging faster than me. I bought a 4-inch decorated cake from the supermarket, managed to fit “Happy Birthday Officer Friend” on the top, and put 26 candles on it. Now, that many candles on a larger cake would have been no big deal, but on a cake that small, it produced one large flame, lots of black smoke, and left a sheet of wax on the top. I had to open the window to prevent the smoke alarm from going off, which was not pleasant in the late weeks of a New England winter.

Within the past decade, both of my parents have celebrated their 50th birthdays. Of course, with a milestone birthday such as this, one must be given a surprise party. My dad’s was pretty typical of his gatherings, and the surprise would have gone off without a hitch were it not for my impatient nephew, who was not quite 6 at the time. About 10 minutes before getting ready to leave the house, Bubba asked, “Papa, when are we leaving for your surprise party?” So, 2 years later when my mom’s milestone birthday rolled around, it was decided that the best way to protect the top secret plans was to keep Bubba out of the loop altogether.

My mom’s party was very well planned, and boy was she surprised. See, she was planning on going down to the mid-Atlantic states to visit her oldest brother, whose birthday is less that a week from hers. They would be going to a classic, popular steak house in the area for dinner. I called up my uncle and we got our evil heads together and decided to invite a few more people along - mostly relatives in the area whom my mom didn’t get to visit with very often. Also along for the ride was my stepdad, who pretty much never made the trip to visit the relatives, and my sister, who also didn’t get down there often, if at all.

I managed to use my busy schedule and lots of errands as an excuse to not meet my mom at the house before heading to the restaurant, which was important since I had my sister and stepdad in tow, and we also stopped at Great Auntie’s house to pick her up. We gathered at the restaurant and waited for everyone else, and I was to get a call from my uncle when they were on their way - he would call with the ploy that he’d be putting in his name for a table. Everything went smoothly. My mom had Bubba with her, and he was really clueless. When they walked into the room, my mom blurted out, “What’s my husband doing here?” as we all yelled SURPRISE! Oh, it worked, she was surprised. After threatening me a few times, we had a grand old time, Mom got to catch up with relatives, and I kept all the organizational things under control.

My own birthdays have been memorable, but in a I-wish-I-could-forget kind of way. There was the year I came home to an apartment I was sharing with one of my best friends and found my birthday card ripped up and a note that said to get out. There was the year that my then boyfriend left a message on my answering machine saying I was no longer welcome in his life. There were a few others that weren’t quite so bad, but now I don’t place too much emphasis or expectations on my birthday. And no, I don’t want to explain these incidents and rehash the past. I’m just trying to get through each and every day and trying to make it a good day, whether it’s my birthday or any of the other 364 days in the year.

Now, getting back to the surprise parties. My mom made many threats that evening, mostly hinting at her need for revenge. The following year, I was getting ready for my move to Las Vegas, so I wanted to have a party, a combo Going Away/1st Annual 29th Birthday party. Since I had sold my home, my mom would be hosting this party. I had lots of things to do, so I gave her a guest list and how to contact these people. Then, a few days before the party rolled around, she tried her best to be sly and ask me if I could come over on Saturday afternoon with a really vague mention of something to do. I told her it wouldn’t work - for one, I had given her a guest list and told her when to hold the party. I also wasn’t going to let my guard down anytime soon, so if she wanted to throw a surprise party for me, wait about 20 years. I might let my guard down by then.

So she moved on to my uncle. He was turning 60 that year, so mom thought she could exact revenge on him for his part in the planning. I told her not to do it, once someone is past 50 it’s just not safe. My uncle may still be a world traveller, but I know his ticker ain’t what it used to be. I love the guy, and I want him around for many more years. So I did what I could to diffuse the surprise element. Go ahead, call me a spoiler, but I only did it out of concern for his health. If he was younger, I ‘d be all for it. But I also wanted to prove to my mom that she will never be able to plan a surprise party as well as I can.

When I was in high school, my mom wanted to plan a surprise party for my stepdad for a milestone birthday he was having. She invited his twin brother to visit us from his home in Moose-land, so Uncle Brother and his wife came down and the 4 of them went out to dinner. For some odd reason, Stepdad actually believed that I was staying home to study on a Saturday night. Fool. I’ve heard enough stories about him in high school and college to know that he’s seriously losing it if he bought that. What I really did was let in guests, go with one of the guests to pick up a keg (at 17, there was no way I could do this myself), and set everything up. Meanwhile, Stepdad and Uncle Brother ate pretty much everything on the dessert cart. (I have previously mentioned that my stepdad is a human garbage disposal; that trait is also seen in his twin.) When the group arrived back at the house, no one noticed the unusually large number of cars parked nearby. And the guests of honor certainly didn’t smell the chocolate sheet cake that was permeating the air. Also not noticed were the large number of people hushing each other in the dining room, until stepdad walked in and everyone yelled out the obligatory surprise party greeting. After recovering from his near heart attack, he turned to my mom, told her he hated her, and made a vow to himself to be a bit more observant about things.

Here’s what I’ve learned about surprise parties and how to have a successful one:
1. Micro-manage the details. It’s the only way to keep everything under control and keep the cat in the bag.
2. Be careful when involving minors. It might be fun to let the kids in on the planning because they get so excited, but their innocent honesty is just the sort of thing that will spoil things here.
3. Never attempt revenge against a master surprise party planner. You’ll never get it.
4. One self-adhesive Depends undergarment can hold a very large amount of beer.

About birthdays in general, really, they aren’t that important. It’s just another day that just happens to be listed on your driver’s license, so don’t let expectations get you down. Don’t rely on others for the best birthday ever, and don’t let people who inadvertantly (or purposely) ruin your day with seriously bad timing get to you. Get over it, get drunk and eat fattening food, and feel better tomorrow - or the day after, once you get over that hangover.