A Very Happy Birthday

Atticus and I both had birthdays this past week. We both got bikes:

And they both happen to be green. And the weather has been lovely enough to go on a couple longer rides along the Jordan River Parkway. I'm actually starting to discover my neighborhood.

Saturday was my birthday, and it was probably the best birthday I've had in quite a while.

It started with morning snuggle time with James. And no, that's not a euphemism for anything, it's just what it sounds like. In the early years of our marriage, when the last person got home from work, one of us would yell "snuggle call!" and we'd go jump on the bed and snuggle and talk about nothing in particular while listening to records on James's turntable, usually Leonard Cohen or side B of Abbey Road or maybe Johnny Cash's new stuff. Sometimes it was for a few minutes, sometimes it was a couple hours. It was my favorite part of the day. But life gets more complicated and eventually the turntable got moved to another room and snuggle time fell by the wayside. 

So I was thrilled to bring it back Saturday. The turntable is still downstairs, but I found Songs from a Room on Spotify and played it on my iPad. Atticus joined us for a few minutes but then went off to watch animé in the living room. It was just like the old days, except now we had iPads.

Eventually it was time to get up, and I put on my favorite outfit and went to a friend's Lula Roe party to exchange a shirt. I don't like most of their patterns, but there's one style of skirt I like and I found it in a cute pattern in my size. Snagged it. Wore it to church Sunday and to work Monday and felt awesome. Happy birthday to me!

Next was brunch at Les Madeleines. I love brunch. This was especially tasty. I had a Spanish-themed open-face sandwich with Serrano ham, manchego cheese, grilled asparagus, and a medium-cooked egg. With a green salad and a buttery pastry on the side. Atticus needed some help finishing his french toast, so I *had* to eat a piece of cinnamon swirl bread soaked in an orange custard. 

Then it was Atticus's turn. We needed to find him a bike. We had purchased my bike the night before (on clearance for half the price I was prepared to pay!!), and he'd fallen in love with a $300 mountain bike. I can't bring myself to spend that much on a bike he's going to outgrow in a few years, so we had to find an alternative. I wasn't sure we were going to make it--we went to three stores with no success and a few tears--when finally we found the green bike. It wasn't the color he hoped for, but it's the right size and style and we could take it home that day. Sold!

We went to couple bakeries to find me a birthday cake, then came home and rested for a bit. Then came the big event: James had found out that the Pioneer Theater Company was performing Chess, so he bought tickets. I love this man. When I was in college, a BYU student group performed Chess in a small theater-in-the-round. I'd never heard of it, just went with friends, but I fell in love. Went back a second time, then went back and hovered outside the door to see if they'd let me in during intermission. They did. Wore out the soundtrack. I remember lamenting with my sister Susan that it probably wouldn't be performed professionally anymore because the Cold War is over and stories about Russian defectors and the KGB are kind of passé. Then Josh Groban did a concert version for PBS. He did a good job, but, well, it's Josh Groban, and he'll never be Anatoly. So I was thrilled to see it here.

I was a little nervous when I learned that it would also be a concert performance, but they still did quite a bit of staging and sets, even though the performers carried their scripts and music with them. A couple flubbed lines, but otherwise unnoticeable. Except when Florence is singing her guts out about how angry she is, and I expect her to throw that binder at Freddy, and she doesn't because it's not actually a prop. Oh, and a guy in the chorus looked just like my brother-in-law Thaddeus, especially in the "One Night in Bangkok" number. I was mad he hadn't told me he was in town, but of course it wasn't him. He would have been just as fabulous, I'm sure. :)

Afterward we picked up Atticus from my friend's house and went home to crash. I'm still not used to the idea of being 44, but my birthday kind of makes up for it.

Atticus's birthday was Tuesday. It's hard to do much on a school day, but he made sure to do extra homework on Monday so he could skip it on Tuesday. He opened his presents when he got home: Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time video game from us (plus the bike), and the Ocarina of Time books from Grandma and Grandpa. He got money from Nana and Grandpa Clarence, and he plans to spend it on Link's master sword at Comic Con this weekend. When this boy likes something, he goes all in. He got to choose dinner, so we went to a Chinese buffet and then to Baskin Robbins for dessert. Extra snuggles at bedtime. 

He's going to have a friend party in a couple weeks, so it feels like we haven't really celebrated yet. He wants to have it at our house, which is nice in a way, but then I look at how much we need to do to make our backyard presentable, and I get a little daunted. But it's not about impressing anyone, right? It's about giving 8 kids a fun afternoon, and I can't imagine they care about last year's leaves piled up against the fence. They just want to run around and smack a piñata and eat cake. I can do that. We may break out the disco ball and let them dance in the basement. We'll see. 

We Bennetts know how to party.