Heavy, Heavy Hangover

Don't be worried.

This isn't a blog about how I have given in to the stresses of life and decided to take up drinking. This is just a momentary step back into my more carefree childhood.

Tonight the youngest son, the hubby and I were gathered around the dinner table and for some reason (I'm sure it was something someone said, but I can't remember what ) I began to recite a familiar rhyme from the birthday parties of my youth.

Heavy, heavy hangover
thy poor head.
What do you wish this person
with a bump on the head.

The son immediately questioned my sanity and when I looked to the hubby for support or some sign of understanding, he just looked back at me with a totally blank stare.  No help there.

I know I am not the only person who has experienced this tradition in their lifetime.  In fact I'm positive since  I wasn't the only guest at the afore mentioned birthday parties, but apparently this is not the common childhood memory that I thought it to be.

I remember this activity done in two different, but similar ways. At gift opening time someone, usually the special guest's mother, would stand behind the birthday boy or girl, select a present and while holding it over the child's head would repeat the rhyme adding a gentle tap on the head with the gift as the word "bump" was spoken. The recipient would then wish the gift giver, which  up to this point was a mystery, a gift as well.  This was usually something totally out of the realm of possibility such as a million dollars, or a swimming pool or a trip to Africa and then the giver would respond with great enthusiasm, thus identifying him or herself to the birthday child.

My other memory is the same except the rhyme reciter was the gift giver himself and the bump on the head was usually a very energetic thwap!

I explained all of this to the men at the table and they continued to act like I was more than a little bit strange.

Of course, after dinner was over, I had to do a little internet research in an attempt to discover the origins of this tradition and to determine if it was really as rare of a ritual as they seemed to think.

I didn't find too much to report.

I did derive that it may come from an ancient childhood game.  That it was practiced most frequently in small town Utah, by Mormons, and is actually referred to in the book "Mama Married a Mormon", but it has been played as far away as Iran. Also, the poem sometimes differs from the one of my memory to be "heavy, heavy hangs over" or "my forehead".

But, the best insight I found, and the one I enjoyed the most, was discovered on a website from the United Kingdom called the phrase finder.  In a response by Dr. Jones to a question asked by R regarding this topic he stated:

"I believe the custom died out in affluent countries when the size and weight of gifts increased and the custom was found to cause unacceptable collateral damage to the upcoming generation of gift recipients.  It did, however, have a Darwinian purpose in prehistoric times, when clubs and similar weapons were handed out as gifts and the thin skulls of the weakest were crushed whilst the thick headed survived to perpetuate the custom: some of these survivors are with us to this very day."

Apparently the reason so few individuals have memory of playing this game as a child, is that many who participated in this activity failed to reach adulthood unscathed.

Another reason to be grateful that I grew up a thick headed Mormon.

Today I am grateful for

the sacrament. Due to Stake Conferences and staying with the grandson last Sunday it had been almost a month since I had the opportunity to participate in this sacred ordinance and I have missed it.

my ward family. I have felt the love and prayers of the "family I attend church with each Sunday" so strongly during the past couple of weeks and it was great to get to meet with them again today.

ham and cheesy potatoes.

The Oldest Members of the Group

Tonight my friends and I went out to dinner at Ruby Tuesdays to celebrate my birthday and the birthday of one of my friends - we are birthday buddies, born 3 days and 1 year apart.  We are affectionately referred to as the "oldest members of the group", because we are.

We had great food and a very attentive waiter who kept our water glasses full, looked the other way when we went back for seconds at the salad bar, accepted all the coupons that we brought, split our check 6 ways, and even brought us 6 complimentary cupcakes at the end of our meal in honor of our special occasion.  That Ryan is a good guy!  The BYU football game and the Republican National Convention speeches were showing on the 2 TVs conveniently located by our table and we felt right at home.

Whenever we go out for a birthday celebration, it seems like we are trying to discretely exchange money and sign cards under the table so the birthday girl is "surprised" when a card appears in front of her sometime during the meal.  Some attempts are more successful than others.  I was in charge of purchasing the card and collecting the money for my birthday buddy this year.  I ended up purchasing a card that I thought was entertaining, but it was one that unfolded to become the size of a poster board.  Needless to say, it was difficult to sign it inconspicuously, but it was fun to try.

One friend ended up coming in late and a little frazzled.  Somewhere between the ATM and the restaurant, she had lost the 2 twenties that were supposed to be included in the cards.  She had been searching for them, with no success. The conversation turned to who had given money to who and who owed who money and so on and so forth.  All the sudden my birthday buddy says to me, "Did I give you money?"  I say, "Yes, I collected money from everyone except #6 (the late friend with the missing money)."  BB says, "Oh yeah, I remember walking it down to your house (we are next door neighbors as well as birthday buddies)."  In the meantime I am thinking, "Wait, I don't remember getting money from her.  Did she bring me money?"  I envision the chest in my entry way and the money from  friend 1 and the money from friend 2, but no money from BB.  Friend 3 gave me money tonight and we aren't sure where friend 6 put her money, but what did I do with BB's money?  I say "I don't know what I did with your money. Look in your card and see how much is there."   That's when I realized, she wasn't supposed to give me money for her gift.  We were giving her money!

But wait, she remembers bringing me money.  Finally we figured out that that was 2 months ago for friend 2's birthday.

There for a minute we thought we were having some "old age" memory loss.

As for #6, she is the youngest member of the group and has no excuse for forgetting where she put her money.

P.S. I took my camera to the party, but I forgot to take any pictures.

Today I am thankful that

I have good friends to celebrate with.
I can laugh at myself when I do kind of dumb things.
#6 chose to only get $40.00 out of the ATM and not the $80.00 that she was going to get.

It's My Birthday!

A while back my youngest daughter posted the #1 song from the day that she was born on facebook. Of course, that made me wonder what MY #1 song was. I think this is a good birthday song, even if it may seem a little bit sad. It reminds me of where I came from.                                                
I had a good birthday! The grandson called to sing me Happy Birthday, but when he found out the cake was going to be at my house he got upset and changed his mind. Oh well, his mom said I could watch him sing on her blog and just pretend he was singing to me.

 I got lots of well wishes on facebook and by phone. Today was election day and a lot of the phone calls were from politicians, but enough of them were from my friends and family that it made answering the phone numerous times worth it.

Tonight was Relief Society temple night and my hubby was nice and went with me. The temple always makes me happy.  I have several birthday dinners planned for the next few days so I'll keep celebrating all week.

Today I am thankful for

people who remembered me on my birthday in so many special ways.
my roots..
the cute photo book my sister made celebrating me.  She worked really hard to find lots of fun pictures and I appreciate it.

If you want to see the whole book you'll have to come and visit.

44 on the 4th

Four years ago, 3 of us were up very early in the morning decorating our friends house in honor of her 40th birthday.  We were trying to be very quiet and not get caught.  It isn't easy for us to be quiet and it didn't help when the street cleaner decided he wanted to have a lengthy, but entertaining, discussion with us. He pulled his monster sweeper up to the curb and yelled his half of the conversation over the noise it was making and we, in turn, felt compelled to yell back.  Still, we were able to decorate and dash without being caught.

Fast forward to today and our friend is again celebrating her birthday.  This is a special one because she is turning 44 on the 4th.  I have always heard that when the date of your birth matches the age you are turning it is your golden birthday.  I turned 28 on my golden birthday and this friend turned 4 on hers.  However, there are some people who are extra lucky and get to have a double golden birthday. Like our friend today.

 I tried to take a picture where you could actually see her holding up 4 fingers on each hand,
but she wouldn't let me because she just got up and "looked gross". 

Both of my sons get to have double golden birthdays.  One had his when he was 11 and one when he turns 55.  We were trying to decide if anyone has ever had a triple golden birthday.  Do you think there was ever someone born on the 1st that turned 111?  That would be REALLY LUCKY!

Well, this morning we decided to decorate a little later and avoid a rendezvous with our friend from the city.  That wasn't a very good idea.  We ended up decorating the house, undecorating it in an attempt to go undetected when we discovered the friend was on her way outside, and then decorating it again. We were caught first by a couple of boy scouts (her son and his friend), then by a police officer (the father of the friend) and finally by our friend (when she failed to stay and visit at the church when she dropped the boys off to go to scout camp. She drove up just as we were walking home and chased us down the street).  Oh well, that way we got to give her a Happy Birthday hug!  I hope her day was GOLDEN.

Today I am thankful that

even though the 3rd member of our decorating committee didn't feel up to helping us this morning, she did let us come and help her clean her house and then shared protein pancakes with us and visited.

the youngest son arrived back safely from his whirlwind trip to San Diego.  Moms worry when their kids drive long distances by themselves.

I was up early enough to see these beautiful cactus blossoms.

These flowers are only open in the cool of the morning.  If you sleep in you miss them.

"Happy To You" Cake

The grandson has attended a few birthday celebrations in the last couple of weeks and he is especially excited by the birthday cakes. He likes the cake and the candles, but his favorite part is the singing. He loves to sing Happy Birthday.

On Friday night we went to his 2nd cousin Hezekiah's party.


and on Saturday we celebrated with his 2nd cousin, Anastasia.


Today, while he and I were visiting the Desert Botanical Garden, we decided to sit down and rest next to this planter full of some type of tiny aloe vera plants. He kept telling me "happy to you" as he pointed to the plant, but it took me a little while to figure out what he was saying. In his mind this looks like a birthday cake with very tall candles poking up. After he pointed it out, I could see the resemblance.



In honor of his ingenuity, we sang "Happy Birthday" several times, like maybe 12, while he practiced blowing the candles out.

Today I am grateful that

the youngest son didn't burn up in the burning building he practiced fire fighting in today.


photo by David H. Barehand

my youngest daughter remembered her grandma's birthday by putting flowers on her grave as she and her dad drove past.

my oldest son owns lots of movies that I can borrow when I am in a movie watching mood.

How We Celebrate

Today was the hubby's birthday. He is now a year older than he was yesterday. It is our family tradition to go out to dinner to celebrate some one's birthday and the birthday boy (or girl) gets to choose where we go. The hubby chose to visit the Golden Corral buffet. We all got lots to eat except the grandson. He kept trying to get Grandpa to share

but finally he just had to resort to eating the table.

After dinner we hung out in the parking lot opening gifts, visiting, taking pictures and entertaining the other restaurant patrons.

Once again the son-in-law had to go to class instead of party. I guess that's what he gets for taking a class on Monday night.

It may not sound very exciting to you, but it's how we like to celebrate and I enjoyed myself immensely.

Today I am grateful for

MY HUSBAND! I am so lucky to be married to the most wonderful man in the world and I'm looking forward to celebrating a lot more birthdays with him.

Surprise sales at JC Penney that made the birthday gifts a real bargain.
beautiful spring evenings in Arizona.

Officially Old!

Today according to my youngest son I am "officially old".
Apparently up until now I have only been pretending.
Funny, but I don't feel old.
Well, maybe every once in a while.

Perhaps I should change the title of my blog to Musings of an Old Mormon Mother, but it just doesn't have the same ring to it.

Today I am grateful

for everyone who helped to make my birthday happy with cards, messages, phone calls, gifts and warm thoughts.
that my mom and dad didn't stop with four kids.
that birthdays only come once a year.

One year ago today - Expectations, The Vote is in.

Good Night

We have Sunday Dinner with the in-laws quite a few Sundays during the month. Sometimes I am content to sit there for hours and visit and some weeks I am ready to eat and go home. Tonight was one of those very pleasant evenings where I was happy to sit and relax and just enjoy my family. All of our kids came and it seemed like they were each in a sociable mood and quite good company.


The youngest son entertained the littlest cousins (and next generation cousins) with horsey rides.


We all enjoyed watching him try to run and keep his pants up at the same time. I also think the flower behind his ear is a nice touch.

We had birthday cake for the youngest son and the roommate.


I think I should have paid better attention during our cake decorating classes. My cakes leave a little bit to be desired and yes, this son also chose cherry chip cake with cherry frosting. Not too masculine, but a delicious choice.


The son has done a good job of stretching out his birthday celebration this year. He gets to open a present a day. You know what they say about kids - they usually enjoy the wrapping as much as the gift.
Today I am thankful for

cooler weather.
sons who harmonize in the van.
watermelon.
the fact that the 2 inches on water on the bathroom floor came from the toilet tank and not the toilet bowl.

One year ago today - Died and gone to Heaven, Baby Blankie has seen better days

Seventeen

Why does 17 sound so much older to me than 16?

Tonight we went out to eat to celebrate the youngest son's birthday. We went to Cafe Laguna for Indian Tacos and they were good. They had a soccer match showing on the TV so we hung around for a while watching it.

I think the restaurant workers were happy to see us go.
This picture reminds me of the cell phone commercial where the people represent the bars - shortest to tallest, almost.

And yup, I was there too!

Today I am thankful for

excuses to eat out with my family.
the safe arrival home of my son. He was in one piece and his scout pants were too.
any day in June that is cooler than 100.

One year ago today - Toe Surgery, National Doughnut Day!

Four Birthdays at Geronimo

Today my youngest son turns 17 and he is not even here to celebrate with. He is spending his 4th birthday in the last 6 years at Scout Camp.

He was at Camp Geronimo when he turned 12, 13 and 14 as well. Although he has sometimes complained ahead of time that he is going to miss his birthday, usually he comes home feeling like it was OK. The cooks always bake him a cake to make his day special. This is this year's cake.

Happy Birthday Dear Son. I hope you're having a wonderful day!

Today I am grateful for

kids to go to the temple with me.

my youngest son. He makes my life more exciting.

word processing programs, much easier than using a typewriter or writing things out by hand.

One year ago today - My baby is 16, A Cell Phone - Finally!

Happy Birthday Blog

My blog is one year old today.

It has been a great year.

Thanks for sharing it with me!

One year ago today - Why?

Cherry Chip Cake with Cherry Frosting

My oldest son was very sad that he didn't have a birthday cake yesterday with candles to blow out. Since I am a nice mother I decided to make him one today. Better late than never I always say. This son's favorite kind of cake is Betty Crocker Cherry Chip cake with Cherry Frosting and it is what he has requested at least his last 10 birthdays. I am also a fan of this combination, but every time I make his birthday cake I think "this cake certainly doesn't look very masculine." I have attempted coloring the frosting a different color on occasion, but then it just usually ends up looking gross, not masculine. Today I decided to just go with the pink look and not care. However, I thought a 9 x 13 cake was kind of boring. When the girls and I took the cake decorating class I'm pretty sure I bought 2 round cake pans, but of course I couldn't find them today. I did find some small round pans that my friend had given us for Christmas one year to make individual pizza cookies though. I decided I could make a tall, small round cake. The cake ended up being 5 layers tall. It would have been fine, but I didn't have enough frosting to put it together so I decided to put some pudding in between the layers. I didn't feel like leveling the layers since that seems like a waste of good cake to me, so the cake was a little precarious. The pudding was too slick to hold the layers in place and ran out the sides and mixed with the frosting and that made the frosting too runny to stay on the cake as well. The cake ended up resembling a pink volcano in a pool of lava.
The oldest son, however, was happy that he had candles to blow out and the cake tasted a lot better than it looked.

Also, in the dark you can't even tell the cake is pink. I'd say it was a success!

Today I am grateful

that I don't have to make a living selling cakes.
that my oldest son is easily pleased.
for birds that collect spiderwebs from my window sills to pad their nests. It makes me feel like I am helping a fellow mother rather than just feel lazy for not cleaning the windows.
for a surprise phone call from my mom and sister.

Birthday Boy

Today was the oldest boy's 23rd birthday. I don't know how my kids can be getting so old. He had planned to go out to Cafe Laguna for Indian Tacos to celebrate, but since his Auntie made those last night he decided he would rather eat at his old favorite "Mi Amigos". We were sure to tell them that it was his birthday so he could wear the sombero and be serenaded.

It was a fun meal with our "family", but our family is getting too big to go out to eat together very often.

This son was my only child to be born before his due date. He wasn't suppose to arrive until April 4th, but for some reason he really wanted to celebrate his birthday every year on April Fool's Day and hurried to get out. I was glad he came when he did since he was also my largest baby, weighing in at an even 9 pounds.

After dinner we came back to the house and opened gifts. I had bought him some new Jeans online and decided to even pay the extra money to have them hemmed. When he opened the package to check them out he found the extra material from the legs stuck in one of the pockets. He decided it would work as a headband and modeled for us.


Looking at how even that strip of fabric is cut, I could have probably done as good a job of hemming the pants as they did.

Today I am thankful for

a son who sets aside 15 minutes to talk to me every morning.
family and friends to celebrate with.
money.

One Year Older

Tonight the hubby and I attended a Luau

in honor of the 50th birthday

of our neighbor, friend and bishop

as well as the 50th birthday

of the state of Hawaii.

It was fun to spend time

with lots of good friends

visiting and eating Hawaiian Haystacks.

One of my favorite parts of the event

was singing "Happy Birthday".

At our Arizona family birthday parties

the birthday song singing

is usually a painful experience.

I have a hard time figuring out

if we are all very horrible singers

or if singing off key

is just a beloved family tradition

that we want to preserve.

Tonight however "Happy Birthday to You"

actually sounded happy.

In fact, we sounded so good

that the honoree requested an encore.

We then endeavored to see

how many Primary Birthday songs we could come up with.

"You've had a birthday; shout "Hooray!"

We want to sing to you today.

One year older and wiser, too.

Happy Birthday to you."

"This month is such a special one;

It's birthday time for you.

We'd really like to celebrate

your happy day with you.

Zip-a-dee-ay and heigh-dee-ho,

Here's something we can do.

We'll sing a song that we all know,

Happy Birthday to You!"

"'Feliz Cupleanos'

that's how they say it in Spain."

I thought this one was especially appropriate

since the bishop served his mission in Spain,

but that's the only line

we could remember from the song.

We also couldn't skip

the old favorite

"Happy, happy birthday bishop dear.

Happy days will come to you all year.

If I had one wish then it would be

a happy, happy birthday to you from me."

It's amazing to me the flood

of warm memories

that these silly songs

bring to my mind.

Thoughts of enthusiastic actions,

specific individuals

singing with all their hearts,

little children growing older and older

each year until they left primary

and moved on to young womens

or became priesthood holders.

Oh, so many, many happy moments

and special people I remember

all because of some birthday songs.

Today I am thankful for

primary music.
old friends, and I'm not referring to someone turning 50 because I no longer consider that old.
one clean window.

Party!

Happy Birthday

Martin Luther King,

Kaily, and Yasmine.

My Birthday Present

For my birthday this year I told my friends I wanted money so I could purchase a specific item that I was looking for. I wanted some kind or cupboard/drawer/hutch type thing to put place mats and tablecloths in since I don't have a good place to store these items. I had been looking for something that would work for awhile and hadn't found it, thus the need for money and not a gift card to a certain place. On Friday one of these good friends called and told me she had seen something that looked like a possibility at Terri's Consign and Design in Chandler. I went to check it out and liked it, but when I realized that the price would drop another $30 if I waited until after Sunday to purchase it I decided I would like it even better then. I have this theory that if you pass something up and then go back and it's still there then you know it was meant to be yours.
Well this morning I had to go to the doctor to have some blood work done and then I headed to Chandler to see if I was suppose to be the proud owner of a "gently used" hutch. I showed my faith that it would still be there by switching vehicles with my son for the day so I could easily bring my purchase home in the back of his handy truck. Everything worked according to plan. The hutch was still there, the price had dropped, the cost was now $1.00 less than the money I received from my friends and I made a decision (a very difficult thing for me to do) and bought it! It is now gracing my dining room wall. Now I just have to decide what I'm going to put on all the shelves and if I want to change the drawer pulls.

I was feeling pretty happy with my purchase until I saw my friend's mom's house and the cupboards that she just put in in her dining room (which is the same floor plan as mine). These are the more updated and costly version of what I have done. They look great, but maybe it is just the fact that she has already decorated them and also has a cleaner kitchen in the background. This is what I can look forward to when I get rich (and buy a lot more cookbooks).

Actually, I am still feeling pretty good about my cupboard. I'm sure I will like it even more after I add some personal touches and clean the kitchen of course.

Today I am thankful for

a phlebotomist who was an expert at taking blood .
a son that lets me borrow his truck.
Good friends that give me birthday money.

The Old Spaghetti Factory

Tonight our family went to
The Old Spaghetti Factory
to celebrate my birthday.

Despite a few roadblocks
on the trip there such as
Arizona Diamondbacks traffic,
one way streets,
no left hand turn lanes,
and downed tree branches
from last night's storm
we all managed to arrive
in one piece.

The Old Spaghetti Factory
is pretty old.
I remember visiting the one
at Trolley Square in Salt Lake City
way back when I was still a teenager
or close to it.
Our family usually manages a
visit there each time we go to Utah,
but not this year.

The oldest son was happy to discover
an Old Spaghetti Factory in Phoenix
a few years ago.
We don't visit often
so it was a good "special occasion" location.

I don't know if I like
The Spaghetti Factory
for the food,
which is good
or for the decor
which is amazing,
in my opinion.

I just think the over-stuffed chairs,
the stained glass windows,
the antique furniture,
and the chandeliers and rod iron decorations
are fun. They make me feel happy.

However, I do enjoy
the Mizitrah and Browned Butter Pasta,
the small loafs of French Bread
and the Spumoni Ice Cream as well.

I enjoyed myself immensely.
Thanks family for going with me.

We are planning a return visit
on the Valley Metro Light Rail
when it starts making runs.
We discovered there is a stop
right in front of the restaurant.
Let us know if you would like
to join us on this adventure.

Today I am thankful for

Family to go out to eat with.

A husband who puts up with my passenger seat driving without complaining.

Beautiful Arizona Sunsets.
My birthmonth present today was going out to dinner.

The new thing I learned today was who Sarah Palin is and why I might want her to be the next Vice President of the United States. She is the govenor of Alaska, a mom of 5 (including a new born with Downs Syndrome and a son serving in Iraq), a wife, a beauty queen, a flute and basketball player, and a moose hunter. I think picking her as a running mate was a good political move for John McCain. Some people who's conversations I ease-dropped on today didn't agree with me.

Lessons from Aunt Grace

I always find myself doing
an inventory of my life
when my birthday rolls around.

It seems like this
is the time of the year
when I am the most motivated to set goals
or change unproductive habits.
I don't set very many New Year's Resolutions
but I usually come up with a few Birthday ones.

Whenever I think about setting goals
I am reminded of a story I once heard
at BYU Education Week.

It was entitled "Lessons from Aunt Grace"
and was originally published in the Reader's Digest Magazine.

Aunt Grace was a maiden aunt who
had come to live with relatives.
She felt like an imposition and
was feeling sorry for herself.
She quickly came to realize that
this was the way her life was.
There was nothing she could do
to change the circumstances
she found herself in
so she decided to change herself.

She decided to complete 6 tasks each day
in order to hold her world together
and she recorded in her journal
how she accomplished these goals.

The 6 tasks were

Do Something for Someone Else.

Do Something for Myself.

Do Something I Don't Want to Do-
that Needs Doing.

Do a Physical Exercise.

Do a Mental Exercise.

Do an Original Prayer that
always includes counting my blessings.

Whenever I feel like
I need to make some changes in my life
these 6 tasks immediately come to mind.

As I think about them
I can usually see
where I am lacking
and what I need to work on.
Often when I set goals
a few of these tasks are included.
Focusing on these simple items
each day has helped to bring my
life back into focus on numerous occasions.

I am grateful for the lessons
I learned from Aunt Grace.

You can read the complete story here.

Birthday Lunch

Today I went to lunch
at the Cheesecake Factory
with a group of friends
to celebrate my birthday
and the birthday
of one of the other friends.



I am not a huge fan
of the Cheesecake Factory
mostly because I am not a huge fan
of fancy or expensive food.

I like to get my bang
for my buck.

The Cheesecake Factory Menu iritates me.

First of all,
it is way too big.

In my opinion, a menu
should not have page numbers.

What a menu should have
is an item listed
with the price
of that item next to it.

In the Cheesecake Factory Menu
they list a category of food
with a range of prices
and then the discription of each item below.

I know they do not list prices
in high class establishments.

However,
I am not a high class person.

I want to know exactly
how much my lunch is going to cost.

(I told my son that tidbit and he told me
he never looks at the price of a menu item
when he orders it.
Hmm, that explains a lot.)

I have always thought the definition
of a rich person was
"Someone who doesn't look at the price tag
before they try on the dress."

I am definitely not,
and never will be,
a rich person.

I will always look.

However, I digress.

I don't love the Cheesecake Factory,
but I loved being there
and eating lunch,
with my friends,
that I do love.

It was wonderful.

It was fun.

It was delicious.

It was entertaining.

It was perfect.

A lot of my friends
are facing challenges
in their lives at the moment
and it meant a lot to me
that they were willing to
spend some of their precious
and limited time
in my company
to celebrate my birthday
with me.

They are the best!

To prove how wonderful they are
they even bought me
TWO rolls
of the very pricey
Press 'n Seal wrap
that I adore.

They must be rich!

They also gave me some money
to buy a specific item
that I am looking for
that I will recognize
when I see it.
As soon as I find it
I will tell them
what they gave me
for my birthday.

One of my friends
was very embarassed
to be giving me cash.
It seemed somewhat
"Grandma-ish" to her.

Apparently she was so embarassed
that she hid my "gift"
- the money -
in her purse
without knowing it.

All my friends were
frantically searching
the waiting area of
the Cheesecake Factory
looking for my "present".
It was quite entertaining.

Earlier I said
that I wasn't rich
and that I never would be
and perhaps
by the above definition
that is true.

However,
Today I think
I have changed
my definition of RICH.

I think the Rich person
is the one who has friends
in their life
that they know love them
and will be there for them
no matter what.

And by that definition
I am the RICHEST person
in the world!

And it doesn't matter
where you are.
If you are with those kind of friends
it's the perfect place.

Thanks, dear birthday buddy, for choosing
where we ate this year
so I didn't have to.