I must start by saying, yes, I know 27 is not old (you know who you are, friend that pointed that out). Last year was the first birthday where I woke up realizing that I was closer to 30 than to 20. It was a very sad day. This morning I woke up thinking, "I got I.D.'d last night. How 'bout them apples?!" I feel fresh, revived, ready to take on the world. And I can't wait for 30. Bring it on!
Yesterday Dave and I celebrated my birthday. Actually, it all started the night before. You should know that Dave has a terrible habit of trying to get me to guess what my present is. And I have a terrible (read: wonderful) habit (read: skill) of guessing bang on. 1) I don't want to sound materialistic. 2) I don't really want to know what's coming, but I'm just so good at guessing and 3) I absolutely love Dave's reaction to my guessing. I can read him like a book. Even if I have no clue, I can negotiate my way to the right answer by his responses or facial expressions. I should really play poker with him more often. Now, back to 1). I told him that birthdays to me are not about getting presents. He could take back those presents, and I would be totally fine (well, not now that I've opened them; that's just bad business sense.) But it's the guessing I love. And I love being right. All the time. Does that make me a bad person? No.
So, back to the evening of Nov. 16. Dave has bought me 3 presents. I'm very touched. I would be happy with a free breakfast at Denny's. That's just the sort of person I am....moving on. I come home from a very long last day teaching at ISU in Ames. Dave says, come upstairs and look on the bed!! I go upstairs, and there are Christmas presents on the bed. Wrong. Birthday presents wrapped in Christmas paper. That is a huge step up from the usual plastic bag wrap job. I'm very touched. The guessing game begins. He starts.
"So, do you have any idea what I got you?!"
"No! I'm sure I will love them!"
"Take a guess!"
"You don't really want to play this game, do you?"
"You'll never guess!"
"Well, I hope one of them is an exercise ball and another is resistance bands!"
"...uh, no! But if you were right, I wouldn't tell you! How about the third?"
(I'm right)
"Well, it feels like a book. An "exercise ball for dummies" book?"
"Nope! Keep guessing!" (boyish grin, I'm wrong.)
...much later
"It's something you want..."
"Well, I really wanted a new cookbook. (Dave grins...right track.) I hope it's not Rachel Ray."
silence
"It is. It's a Rachel Ray cookbook! Oh, Dave, I really hope it's a Rachel Ray cookbook!"
"That's right, you hope it is. That's it, you're opening it right now. Dammit!"
"Well, that's what you get when you ask me to guess!"
(I open the present, a Rachel Ray cookbook.)
"Oh, Dave! It's just what I wanted! Thank you!"
Sweet, sweet Dave, on Nov. 17:
I open my other two presents, an exercise ball and resistance bands, Dave goes to work, I work out (no husband minds buying exercise equipment for his wife on HER request for her birthday), Dave comes back with...
"Here are some birthday flowers for you."
"Aww, thank you, honey. You're so sweet."
"Here's some birthday peanut brittle..."
"Um, I don't like peanut brittle."
"Well, I do, so I'll eat it. And, some...birthday cake!" (he takes it out of a HyVee grocery bag) "They just happened to have one with your name and music notes on it!"
Now that was sweet. I was very sad at a potentially cakeless birthday this year. I've been spoiled by my friend Katrina's wonderful cakes for the past few years in Oregon. The fact that Dave didn't try to sneak the cake into the house and actually surprise me with it, that actually kind of added to the charm. Later on (after I made my birthday supper, chicken with Israeli spice rub and orzo with spinach and tomatoes), I found birthday candles, gave them to Dave and instructed him to sing happy birthday to me. I took pictures of him coming in with the cake, and he took pictures of me acting surprised and blowing the candles out. It was a great evening!
Tonight I'm heading up to Ames to meet Dave and friends Sonja and Mike for dinner. It's All-State Band weekend at ISU. Luckily my private student up there (one of Kevin's) cancelled, otherwise I'd be very late right now.
I'll sign off by saying that I've accepted the fact that while I can act humble and pretend birthdays aren't that big a deal to me, I actually love my birthday, getting older, and turning more into me with each passing year. Presents are great too, not that I'm materialistic! I just love stuff.
No comments:
Post a Comment