So, the birthday rundown. Work was just ... work. But I did get a chance to give
our manager pro tem some grief when he happened to comment that "We're all getting
older"-- well yes, but some of us are ageing as we speak! (Everyone else at the
meeting knew what day it was because we sent a card as a group to a former
coworker who, they all know, was born on the same day I was -- but he wasn't
around for all of that. Which, of course, isn't a reason not to give him shit,
because he's the kind of guy you can do that to. We'll miss him when we get our
"real" manager.) There are several others here with birthdays in the next few
weeks, so we're going out to lunch as a group tomorrow to celebrate. I do like my
department.
After work I got home to find that my in-laws, Amazon,
and CD Baby came through for me, with boxes arriving in the mail. (Actually, the
Amazon and CD Baby boxes were things I'd ordered for myself but it still please me
that they happened to arrive on that day. As an incorrigible materialist I love
getting "presents" even when they're from myself.) The in-laws gave me a traveling
jewelry case, something I had asked for a couple of years ago and still needed.
GOod memory, since Rudder says he hadn't mentioned it to them. What I really need
is a tiny one for the gym and what they sent is a gorgeous biggish red leather
case, but this will be great for taking when we travel, better protection than the
soft case I've been using. I think I'll demote the bigger of my soft cases to gym
use and throw out the small one, which is in tatters. Or just buy a new small one.
We went out to dinner at a nice steakhouse, where we split an even
nicer Merlot, so no gym this morning. And when I got home there was a call from
the in-laws (well-chosen gifts andperfect timing - I have great in-laws) as
well as messages from my brother and Egret. So that was all good. And now I still
have a gift from the Bro (supposedly arriving tomorrow or Monday), new bookcases
from the Rudder-man and things from a few other relatives to look forward to, plus
lunch tomorrow.
I think my trouble with birthdays is that I have good
things happening to me all the time - if I really want something I buy it, and if
I want to go somewhere, I go. It's hard to make a day be totally special when
you're normally spoiled.
PS. It turns out not only is my cat's
birthday the same day as mine, but so is SWooP's cat (he's three years younger
than my Beast). Is that freaky or what?
Enough and more than enough about me, tiime to focus in the other direction. We've
been having an odd blend of spring and summer lately. For the past few weeks we'd
had what passes for winter here, with temperatures getting only a little over 60.
(Shut, up, we pay for it with our summers.) This week it suddenly turned warm.
We've had a few days with bright sunny days and highs into the nineties, and lows
where our highs where our lows were last week, so it feels like summer. But it
smells like spring; there are wildflowes out, thanks to the rains we've had, and
the air hadn't settled into its summer inversion-layer brown cloud, so I've been
smelling blossoms and growth and the desert's own smell. Today is different again;
there are low gray clouds and so it's a little bit cooler out, but I saw a brown
cloud in the direction of downtown as I drove into work this morning. With luck
we'll get some rain to wash it out of the air.