goodness
goodness me, so many guesses! well, there are a couple of you who are pretty darn close! i will still keep the guessing open until sunday evening, so feel free to add your guess to the list if you haven't already.
thank you all for your kind birthday wishes. reading all your guesses and your kind words has been such fun.
i had a really nice day. it has been funny to answer this question this week, "what are you doing for your birthday?" (long pause on my end of the phone, followed by a slight giggle) "well, jon and i are going to 'an evening with bob newhart' at a theatre here in tacoma." (long pause on the other end) "oh yeah, he is great. i always liked him." "me too."
it was wonderful. he is just as cute in person and just as funny as you would imagine. a genius really with his timing and his facial expressions and his voices. we were in the fifth row...pretty darn cool. the place was packed and the crowd really enjoyed him. we were laughing all the way home. i love that guy. i think i might download some of his comedy albums...now that i have enough space on my ipod because...
Jon bought me a much bigger one! he used some of his birthday money last year to buy me a little nano. and he did the same this year (well, actually, it kind of works out that he used my birthday money as we used his to buy a new docking station for our iPods with me not knowing i would have a new one) because he knew i was just a wee bit sad that i couldn't put as much on my nano and that i wanted to be able to start listening to podcasts and other things. (not to mention that i still think he feels bad for erasing my entire iTunes library last december...and this way i can pretty much put almost every CD onto my iPod now, so if it gets erased again because of a massively huge miscommunication, it will be okay.) after it was charged, the first order of business, as decreed adorably by my husband, was to download the short film boundin'. do you know that animated short? the one that played before the incredibles in the theatre? if you don't know it, you should. really, it sums up my entire philosophy about life. (i am not kidding here.) and now i can watch it on a little screen whenever i want to. if i am ever on a plane that is maybe "going down," just know that i was there, sitting in my seat watching that little short and breathing deeply.
goodness. sorry for that morbid thought, but i am not kidding. the therapist i went to in college talked about the idea of staying calm in the midst of it all using the metaphor of either screaming as a plane experiences major turbulence or just sitting there and reading your book through it all. hmmm...i might not be doing this metaphor justice. but i think of that idea: that i would want to experience calm in those last moments. now i will be watching boundin' instead of reading if i ever find myself in that situation. moving on...
i am one of those people who loves a cake for her birthday. i know you might be nodding and thinking "don't most people?" but, my experience after grade school was that you don't always get a cake. (part of this has something to do with the fact that my mom doesn't like cake, so after we were a certain age i think she thought that we didn't want cake. so there tended to be dessert at the restaurant we went to to celebrate and i think there were a few ice cream cakes. and those are great. but, my brother and i are totally cake-cake people. i should have baked him one this year. hmmm. next year matt, i am showing up in portland with a cake.) i wish that i would have just started making myself one every year. anyway, the point is that i should have also just said, "hey friends and family, i like cake. and i kind of want a cake with candles and everything on my birthday." so, when jon and i got together, i finally said that. and this is where he started making one for me every year. super cute. the funny part is though that about every other year he tries something different. like adding cinnamon to a chocolate cake to try to make "mexican chocolate cake" like they served at this restaurant i love. not quite mexican chocolate. and this year, he was so cute as he made me a cake while i was out tuesday night, so when i got home, there was a note on it that said, "you do not see this." working from home and having to wait until thursday to eat the cake, well, that was torture. but, then, when we had cake thursday morning (i was up really early for some reason, so jon went ahead and put candles on the cake and served it to me for breakfast...hee, hee...love it), it was discovered that the cake and the frosting were made from an organic mix. hmmm. it was kind of like when you go to the store and you really want ice cream but buy some low-fat ice cream when you really want the regular chocolate and you get home and eat it and think "why oh why did i do this when i should have just gone to baskin robbins and eaten one scoop of the good stuff?" yeah. i love to do the organic thing as much as possible. but this cake was missing a little somethin' somethin'. however, i point out, that it truly is the thought that counts. and i think that we might just make some cupcakes together this weekend to celebrate the end of the school year for jon but also to just have that regular old pillsbury yellow cake with chocolate frosting.
today, as i chuckle a bit as i write this long post of silliness, i feel this true sense of joy that my husband is such a kind, sweet man. that he supports me in all that i do and that he wants to sprinkle pieces of joy in my life. that instead of just thinking "oh i could do that," he just does it, even if it means that sometimes things don't work out as perfectly as he would have liked. the fact is, he just wants to make me smile. and life is hard. so it is really nice to have someone in your life who just wants to do that for you.
(thank you sweetie)
this is me
Reader Comments (16)
I'm so glad to hear you had a great birthday. And the iPod is a very good gift. Mine has more podcasts than songs (I think) because I love those snippets of information. And they're free!!
I'm with you on the cake. Want cake for my birthday, with candles, and song. :) Although I have to say, my last birthday was spent in Portland at a sushi place with some amazing women. It was a very good birthday.
happy belated birthday, love! glad you had lots of cakey goodness :-)
Happy Belated Birthday!!! I just started reading your blog a few weeks ago...Yay on the Ipod..i bought my hubby one for his birthday lst year and he claims it was the best present he has ever gotten..EVER, lol...So happy listening and again Happy day!
http://wannamakeamemory.blogspot.com/
Your hubby and mine are cut from the same cloth--gotta love 'em.
I'm glad you were able to celebrate with cake and a good dose of laughter. I am so with you on dedicating calories to a smaller portion of what you really want rather than wasting even more on the stuff that doesn't quite measure up.
Yay for the new iPod! I am always slow in arriving at the tech party so don't have one yet...maybe someday.
Happy Belated Birthday Liz! Your husband sounds so wonderful...you have such a treasure!
My guess for the buttons is 2,435.
Liz!
I am glad you had a great birthday! I smiled as I read about you and birthday cake because I understand completely. Cake is mandatory for birthdays around here! I have made something else mandatory - streamers! Each year I decorate the dining room with streamers - old school crepe paper streamers strung from the ceiling. I just think birthdays are something to rejoice about so even if these streamers only hang for a day or so, it is great fun in the moment, no matter how old you are. ( plus - that's ALOT of happiness stemming from something that costs under five bucks!)
Liz, I loved reading every word of this post - have a cup of Bancha in hand and lots of lazy time this Sunday morning, reading your blog. It's good to read about your birthday - life may be hard, but you live a charmed one between the bumps.
This line: the fact is, he just wants to make me smile. and life is hard. so it is really nice to have someone in your life who just wants to do that for you. .... I bet John feels the same way about you. Blessings for both of you -- may you always smile, even if the smile is sometimes an inner turning of the corners of your mouth and a secrete krinkling of your eyes and cheeks .... xoxo
and I have to say it again: Happy Birthday
It was my tradition to make angel food cakes with powdered sugar frosting (didn't know it was called buttercream frosting until recently) for everyone in my family, but no one every made me one on my birthday until I had a hissy fit and insisted someone make me one too! My dear husband did just that. And while my sister didn't make me a cake she sent me a card about making a cake, which I will share on my blog on my birthday later this month.
Your sweet man is WONDERFUL! Many kudos to him and much love to you dear birthday girl.
Sounds like Bob Newhart was terrific (I just heart him too!) and your sweet hubby treated you well with new iPod and yummy cake (go Jon go!)
Peace and love, Deb
ahhhh...
a post cake-ful of sweetness...
thanks...
i totally enjoyed my slice of you today...
heehee
hahah i have so much to say..
bob newhart is sweet! ..but i've never heard his comedy albums. I might check them out. My earliest Bob Newhard memory is of his voice in Disney's The Rescuers which was my favorite Disney cartoon as a child. It's kinda funny cos now, the two mouse characters kinda remind me of myself and James, only a bit exagerated of course hahah.
! About a year ago James erased my entire hard-drive!! It was quite on accident but I was CRUSHED. I CRIED haha. ugh it was the worst. Like 7 years of various artwork, music, photos, etc. Luckily, James has a computer savvy friend who could help us and we recovered a fair amount of things..but everything was in files like 56Du89.mp3 or jpg etc. so it made finding things very hard haha. All is well though..and of course, we are still together haha.
you are so right about cake kinda going MIA after certain ages. Ice cream cake really took over when I was younger, too. I'm not a big fan of sweet frosting, so I was into the ice cream pies. these days, I'm happy with either..though cakes are just that much prettier haha.
Sounds like you have a great hubby, indeed! That's so nice that he makes a cake each year! Always tastes better that way, too :)
..also I found myself pondering those bracelet things that your Grandma once gave you.. so like, haha it was indeed a trend though, right? ..Back then, to wear you sleeves pushed up?? So they invented these things to lend a helping hand??
haha ok phew! Glad you had a great bday!
send me an email with your mailing address!
-Caitlin
Oh, what a cutie couple you make! Glad you had such a good time- with Bob yet! How cool!
xo
o.k...i love those mugs...your hubby is atrue sweetie...hap hap happy birthday to you...4,123 is my guess... :)
what a sweet post! i'm glad you enjoyed your birthday. my sister is now into cake baking and let me tell ya, she can make a mean cake...i'll have to find a way to ship you a slice...or two...or three...
What a wonderful husband you have! It is true that it is the thought that counts, and clearly, he put a lot of thought into making sure your b-day was special. This just warms my heart.
And..p.s. Ayden loves cake too and he calls it "cake~cake."
xoxo
so glad you felt joy in celebrating your birthday.
that idea of calm in moments of chaos is something i definitely want to try to practice myself.
and i'm in love with your last few sentences. so clear, and simple, and wonderfully how it should be. sometimes it gets confusing trying to figure out what "kind of person" i'm meant to be in a relationship with, and i think you've answered that for me the best - someone who wants to make me smile. life is hard, and the people who make us smile because they love us, truly are angels.