Day #264: My Birthday in the Time of COVID-19

 I am 42 today. And it's kind of nice. It's a different sort of birthday to be sure but if birthdays are meant to remind you that you are loved, success.

We did most of our celebrating yesterday, which was a weekend day. My girlfriends did a birthday Zoom for me and sent me some cupcakes via Uber Eats. My husband made me one of my favorite meals, breakfast for dinner, with his cinnamon French toast and bacon and eggs. My kids gave me fun new kitchen tools and lots of hugs and snuggles. And James and I did what we've been saying we would do, which is take out the Christmas books.

I have absolutely no idea how I got started collecting Christmas books. Holiday books, I guess, there's some multiholiday and a few Hanukkah ones in there. I inherited my mother's Christmas books that she would put out, but she had maybe a dozen or so? I have 129 holiday books. Yes, I do have them inventoried. On Goodreads. They take up two standard size packing boxes. There are kids' books, rare books (I have a copy of A Christmas Carol from the 1800s and a first edition of Tolkein's The Father Christmas Letters that cost me 25 pounds sterling in a bookshop in Wales,) ratty paperbacks from my childhood that I have re-stapled, books I've bought, found, gotten for free, and been gifted. We somehow manage to add some every year (in recent years I've also been trying to get rid of some here and there.) Whatever we do or don't do for holiday decor (I have a ton of it, mostly inherited from my mom,) pulling out the books makes it feel like Christmas. It's usually the first thing we do and has become something of a ritual for James and I. I ADORE raising book lovers, I hope they stay that way.

And then last night I continued my Meg Ryan/Tom Hanks/Nora Ephron movie marathon and Josh sat all the way through Sleepless in Seattle, which he had never seen. He is good people. I'm pretty sure I owe him something for that. The third in that movie trifecta is going to be When Harry Met Sally, but I think I'll put that off and watch something different tonight. It seems unfair to subject him to more.He said he liked it more than You've Got Mail, though. Can't say that I agree, although I have promised and will live up to said promise to listen to the We Hate Movies podcast episode on You've Got Mail to see what his big beef with it is. Trouble is that podcast is very not kid friendly so I have to find a time to do it when I can pop the headphones in. He's seriously listening to it in the other room right now so all I can hear is snippets. Annoying.

Today I didn't expect to be super birthdayish...it was a Monday, Josh was working, James had school so I figured it would be me doing my thing and a lot of laundry. And it was. But it was also nice. Max greeted me with a "Happy birthday, Mama!" Josh made me a cake, it was from a box, but hey, Josh made me a cake. And I had delicious takeout dinner...seafood fettucini. So I will take it as a birthday.

I got some lovely mail, today, too...my NaNoWriMo care package arrived with little inspirational stickers and magnets and such, that was super fun, and I got a package from my aunt out of the blue which was bizarre...haven't talked to her in years but she sent a nice Thanksgiving card and a couple of homemade kitchen towels. I got a nice card from my mother-in-law, so sweet. My dad's card...well, you just have to understand my dad who has always been somewhat morbid. I can't even describe him to you so I will transcribe his card here to save it for posterity.

Kris-

I know that you do not get enough peace and relaxation. I would probably not be on the planet if not for you.

Dad

I mean, I know him and I know how sweet and lovely that message is but it is also just so very my dad. He also sent $42. This is what my dad does, he sends $1 for each year you are turning. I think he's proving he remembers how old you are.

I talked to my sister...she liked the doll. Have I talked about the doll yet? Oh, this is more bizarre family-ness. So YEARS ago, like circa 1992 my mom took a doll making class. She was into all kinds of handicrafts and doll making is one she hadn't gotten into up to that point. This feminist doll making teacher had this theory that we as women deny our own femininity when we make dolls as infants and without clearly defined genders. So the students in this doll making class made anatomically correct dolls of themselves. Read: the doll has pubic hair. I mean, she is fully clothed but underneath she has pubic hair and a lacy bra and nipples. You can't even make that up.

So this doll was creepy when my mom was alive, it did not become less so after she died. And I hadn't seen it in a LONG time. But my dad cleaned out his garage and there was the doll in some stuff he gave me. I was like this doll is going to haunt my house but also I can't toss it. So my BFF had the wonderful idea of sending it to my sister with a note "Mom says hi."

What we all forgot is my sister is a wonderful human being in lots of ways but she doesn't always get jokes. And I don't think she knows she's being punked, so I think she told me she liked it to be nice and now I don't know how to tell her she's been punked.

But bottom line the doll is out of my house. Don't know what to do with it beyond that.

So yeah, that was my birthday 2020. A pretty nice one, all things considered. I mean, I've had better birthdays FOR SURE, four years ago we were in NYC traveling with the choir to sing at Carnegie Hall. But I'll be honest and tell you I've also had worse ones.

Media consumption: I delayed my Nora Ephron movie trifecta for another night, so just Sleepless in Seattle and then lots of How I Met Your Mother and Community. I FINALLY finished that Countdown book, OMG, HOW can a book about the Cuban Missile Crisis be so damn SLOW? I started an historical fiction book I bought from a local author a few years ago called Last of the Blacksmiths.

Today I'm grateful for good food, good books, good conversations, my family, and another year of being me. I'll take it.