2003-07-07 - 10:32 a.m.
It is Monday morning after a big holiday weekend, and I am not sad..... except in the abstract, as a kind of solidarity with Piper (who tried as hard as she could to smile, but could barely even bring her mouth up to a straight line) and all my loved ones who are gloomily slouching toward offices this morning. I am at home with a week's worth of vacation days stretching out in front of me like a string of pearls. (Although I know they will disappear as quickly as drops of water...) I decided to take time off in order to get some home projects and other stuff done. So here I sit, with my coffee and a list that keeps growing. It doesn't sound like much of a vacation, but actually I am a person who worries so much about getting things done, that my mental relief at the end of a "working vacation" will more than compensate for any lack of relaxation.
This weekend we celebrated not only the birthday of our country, but the birthday of Piper. She was born on the fourth of July, and while it is kind of fun in some ways (as a kid, she thought all of those fireworks were for her birthday!), mostly it has led to disappointing birthdays for her. There was always an over-abundance of flag-shaped cakes, stars and stripes gifts, and red,white & blue themed birthday parties in her childhood. But most of her birthdays seem to be celebrated on other days if they are remembered at all, because people are so involved with their own holiday plans. And this year was no exception, because even though I planned and cooked a birthday dinner for her and her parents, most of the day ended up being about trying to put the kitchen (and the house) back together in the midst of our kitchen redecorating project. So she didn't get to feel very celebrated until evening, when her Mother and Stepfather arrived, bearing armloads of gifts. The temperature were in the upper nineties, and it was so hot we transferred our "picnic" to the dining room table and only made the guests stick their heads outside for a few minutes for their obligatory admiration of the back yard. The fan blew out the candles on her Boston creme pie before she got a chance, and they had to be relit. She has the birthday that is always hot and everything is closed for the holiday. I have the birthday that is always cold and dreary (November). Unfortunately, we don't get to pick our days.
Birthdays are rarely a truly satisfying experience for an adult. But yet I think we all have this hold-over from childhood that our birthday is a big important day and something magical will happen. And the world says, oh, yeah, uh...happy birthday.
The next day, we went shopping for her birthday gift from me: some new clothes. And we had birthday party leftovers and watched a movie. The birthday girl was exempted from her most hated chore all weekend: washing dishes. So I hope she felt at least a little bit special.....
Back to the list. OK...maybe a second cup of coffee. It is vacation, after all.
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