Happy Birthday to Me

We have had a really nice, laid-back day. I don’t know when I’ve had a better birthday.

It began with a phonecall from my brother in Iraq, which was a great treat. It was only the 2^nd time we’ve been able to talk by phone since he left in February. He sounded good. There was a 5 second or so delay in hearing him, which was surprisingly awkward. The call was bouncing around a bunch of satellites, though, I’m sure. He sounded in good spirits, which is what’s important.

We went to IHOP for breakfast. The waiter was a small chubby white guy, and he wasn’t Mr. Personality. Right after we got there, I noticed all the other wait staff had cute little hats or necklaces or something on that was red white and blue, little cute party favor looking things. So I said to our waiter, “Where’s your cute necklace?" He gave me a disgusted look, said “Oops, forgot it!” in a very dry voice, and I almost laughed.It was much more funny when I told the story to Lesleigh later.

The kids went to the pool for a couple of hours this afternoon, which was great. It gave me some time to visit with Mother, free from interruptions. When the kids are around that’s hard to do.

While Mother napped this afternoon I took the kids and Lesleigh met us at the movies and we saw Hancock, the new Will Smith movie. I knew vaguely that it was about some superhero who looks like a homeless person, but that was all. It turned out to have a really riveting storyline. It was very archetypal. I don’t want to say too much and spoil it, but it was excellent. Will Smith was playing a moody introvert, totally opposite of his usually affable hero type, and he was amazing. Go see it.

We had honeybaked ham, broccoli salad, rolls, and fruit salad for dinner. Yummy!

After dinner I grabbed Les and the kids and we headed up to Decatur to watch fireworks. I had heard for years that they have a great show, but never wanted to deal with the crowds and parking. Turns out, we parked about 4 blocks away but it was an easy walk, and the crowds were very mellow. We people watched and sipped decaf cappuccinos from Starbucks [Michael was thrilled] while waiting for the show to start. The fireworks were MAGNIFICENT. I have seen a lot of fireworks, and I almost didn’t go, but I’m glad I went. Michael was captivated. Alesia enjoyed them, too, but she wasn’t spellbound.

There were a couple of tense moments, when Michael darted away from me, and I sort of panicked.  We will have to work on behavior when out in a crowd. At one point he said to me “You’re really uptight, you know?!”

While we were watching fireworks I noticed a nice looking young man standing near us, and he and Lesleigh chatted. We kept thinking the fireworks were over, and then another round would get fired off. I could feel some of the vibrations in my sternum, which was really eerie.

Anyway, Lesleigh was teasing me and saying, “Wow, everyone celebrated your birthday, Dee!” and the young man congratulated me on my birthday. After the show ended, I introduced myself and shook his hand. He said he would like to sing Happy Birthday to me, so I said OK. He has a beautiful, trained voice. He sang it in Italian! I think he learned it phonetically, because afterwards I thanked him in Italian and he looked sort of blank. He was a sweetie, though. Gave me his card – he works for a singing telegram company!

After I saw that I started singing God Bless America, and he joined me! It was fun. After we finished, there was some applause - probably from the folks who were more interested in drinking beer than in hustling the family out of there. LOL

Altogether a great day!