Skip to main content

40 and fabulous!

I like to celebrate a birth weekend or a three-day birth anniversary whenever I can. Why limit yourself to just one day out of 365?!

So, of course, in advance of today, the big 4-0, I decided to start my celebrating on Saturday. It started off on a small scale. I took Jordan to the Home Depot for one of those kids' workshops. With no hammering and a few screws, it was right up my alley. And, I was able to lift and carry the full propane tank back to the car, so clearly I am not over the hill! We followed that up with a quick trip to Kohl's, where I treated myself to a new wallet. Even waiting in a 20-person-deep line could not dampen my spirits, what with my happily telling the two people in front of me and one behind me that I was turning 40 on Monday.

Yesterday was the real highlight. With my Steelers Santa cap and Hines Ward jersey on and my Terrible Towel in pocket, I headed downtown, where I got to park for free! I had a nice walk across the Roberto Clemente Bridge and over to the Bettis 36 Grille, where I had a less-than-stellar, but-still-enjoyable, bloody Mary. A while later, when my mom, aunt, uncle, and two cousins showed up, I showed a beer maid outside the place that I was turning 40 tomorrow, and she said my and my cousin's beer was on her. Sweet!

After a tasty lunch, I headed over to Heinz Field, where I spent the next three hours watching the Steelers dominate the Bengals. I sat behind Andy Dalton's parents, which was kind of cool. I teased them and his cousins, asking why Andy did not get them better seats. But as it turned out, our seats, located between the 10-yard line and the end zone about 20 rows back, allowed us to see four of the scores perfectly. Even the drunk, repetitive guy next to me could not dampen my day; it probably helped that when I told him I was turning 40, he said he would have guessed I was 21. Ha ha!

Today I woke up at just after 6, with a phone call asking me to sub, but it was all good, no doubt helped by the "It's My Birthday" pin I have been wearing for the past 15 birthdays. I had about a half dozen cookies, many birthday wishes, and pretty good kids overall.

When I got home, there was an edible fruit arrangement from my little brother, his wife, and their kids; and one of my best friends from college sent me lovely flowers. Brian and Jordan had some cards waiting for me, and we had shrimp and crab cakes for dinner and some yummy chocolate cake for dessert.

Among the cards, phone calls, text messages, and probably 70 Facebook posts, I felt a lot of birthday love today.

So far, 40 is just fine!

Comments

Mel said…
That sounds like a great weekend-into-week birthday. Happy belated, and 40 really isn't so bad, as you'll find out. It's probably even better for you b/c I know you are in far better shape than I am! And what a good game to go to—even the weather was great!
robta said…
LOL! Love this posting about your birthday. Sounds like a great birthday/week. Your picture is great. You look fabulous.
Facie said…
Thanks, ladies. And, Mel, you were not late; the 5th was my birthday.
bluzdude said…
Not a day over 29, I swear!
Facie said…
Thanks, Sherri and Bluz. And an extra thanks to you, Bluz. :-)
Anonymous said…
Happy Birthday.

I have my 5-0 in February. (Like that's not a depressing enough month.) Told the wife I don't want a party. I just want to celebrate it sitting on a beach somewhere. So I've got that to look forward to.

Yours sounds like it was a bit more festive.
Facie said…
Thanks, Bagger. And thanks for the reminder that I have been lax in my blog writing. Here's to your 50th!

Popular posts from this blog

What a year 2021 has been (Day 7)

I have almost no words for what happened yesterday at the Capitol. Protesting is one thing (though I truly think it is and has been time to move on). But to storm the Capitol? A friend on Facebook said, quite simply, " Almost 20 years ago a group of people on an airplane sacrificed themselves to protect the Capitol. How far we have fallen!" Indeed. And, yes, it IS storming the Capitol. I have seen numerous videos of people knocking down barricades/fences, pushing police officers, and breaking windows and climbing through them. That is beyond protesting. And even if a protestor did not do those things, if they followed those seditionists past those barricades and into the building, they are just as guilty. I did not support the violent protests this summer that resulted in damages to businesses and public property (I was in full support of the actual protests). But I also acknowledged as a white person, I cannot truly put myself in the position of a black person who is angry a

Melancholy and Gratitude

 A few days ago, I decided to do gratitude posts on FB. I was good the first two days. Day 3 I got a little snarky as I posted about "doing the right thing" in regards to Covid. The Covid cases in Allegheny County have been on the rise. For a while, we had daily counts between 50 and 100. After July 4, we saw a spike for a few weeks, and then cases were back below 100. Unfortunately, other than one "low" day this week, where "only" 288 cases were reported, we have had between 500 and 620 daily cases. Fortunately, only a few people have died this week. But of course, any death is too many. I started to keep track of cases, deaths, and hospitalizations on 6/12/20. On that day, since 3/12, Allegheny County had had 2,034 cases, 352 people had been hospitalized, and 172 people had died. On 11/19/20, the county has seen a total of 22,042 cases, 1,724 people have been hospitalized, and 465 people have died from Covid since 3/12. In just over 8 months, we have had

Hug your loved ones!

I hate to say that I am still working through my grief. I mean, in some ways I can imagine I will always be grieving. But I feel pretty confident it will get easier, and I will cry less and less. But, yeah, I guess I am still working through it. Yesterday, a thought occurred to me: I had not hugged my dad since the end of February, and that will now be the last time I ever did. I did not see him for almost three months because of COVID, and then at the end of May, he started his series of hospital visits with skilled nursing stints in between. I was always afraid to hug him then. What if I gave him COVID? And yet when my dad had really bad ICU delirium during a few different hospital stays, I fed him. If I could do that, why not hug him? So I cried a bit last night thinking about that. I am not necessarily a big hugger; I used to hate it, and then probably before Jordan was born, I got back to doing it again. Before COVID, I hugged my friends goodbye (and sometimes hello). I always wou