For those who have missed it, I turned 80 today. I got up at the usual time- no sleeping in. My adolescent days are well over when I could sleep all day. My body starts hurting when I stay in bed too long.
I couldn’t complete my morning goal, 6,000 steps, on my walk. My leg was bothering me. I came back to the house by 6:30. I fed Elsa and approached the side door to walk more, if only in the driveway. Yvette and Scott were out there decorating the driveway with streamers and balloons. Yvette said, “You’re not supposed to be home yet.”
When Joe came in, he handed me a plant. I looked at Yvette, “Something else for you to plant.” This wasn’t an orchid as the other plant was. Joe welcomed me to 80. I figured he was around my age, but I thought he might be younger than me. No, he turned 80 in May.
When I came to my yoga mat, a Happy Birthday crown and a pink and purple thing on a string to go around my neck. I was the only one with the crown, but everyone got pink or purple thingies. They were a little bottle of bubbles. During the yoga class, Yvette led us through bubble-blowing breaks.
Two of the participants arrived late. Jared and Casey came festooned with gifts, a potted flower, a soft stuffed unicorn, and a huge, 4 ft unicorn balloon. I said, “No need to miss Mike with that creature by my side.” Elsa immediately took after the stuffed animal. There are some she’s not interested in. Yvette warned me that this one may have stuffing that wouldn’t be good for her. I have to keep it out of her reach.
After the class, Elise passed out delicious homemade cupcakes and gave me two containers of Italian pasta she made. Seems everyone knows giving me food is a good idea.
Yvette and her good friend Scott carried my gifts inside the house and gave me some of their own. Scott gave me a beaded necklace. Yvette gave me two lomi sticks for self-massage.
After they left, Jean M., my friend from Arizona, called to wish me well. I was feeling tired as we talked. I lay down for a nap after the call, and it was only 8:30. I woke up around 11. Wow! Where did that case of tired come from?
Yvette and Scott went out for breakfast. She was commemorating her mother’s death. Yes, her mother died a few minutes after midnight on December 5, 1980. Yvette, her brother, and her uncle, who would adopt her, stayed at our house in Princeton. I remember the phone ringing in the early hours of the morning. We called her uncle from the other bedroom. I have a clear image of him standing in the doorway of our bedroom to get the phone. I don’t know why I hold that image.
Yvette said she would take down the driveway decorating when they got home. I could see them from the living room window. They were sinking and blowing in the breeze. I took a video of their state at 11 and again at 1. I loved the look- so Fellini. I love the absurd and the surreal.
I did some work in the library. I alphabetized a bay with about 200 books and didn’t find one book on the list for St. Patrick’s Seminary. The books in the bay were all about European history. I have another bay with books all on American history. I haven’t seen one title on that subject. I decided to pull out the A and B lists and look through the shelves in the back corner devoted to the Catholic religion. I didn’t find one book after looking in five different bays. Ow! This is going to be frustrating. I will have to pace myself.
Maybe I can plant a book for me to find. That’s what they do with rescue dogs at disaster sites with no survivors. They plant a volunteer so the poor dog can find someone alive. The dogs get very depressed when all they can find is dead people.
My Zoom birthday party started a 2:30. Damon asked that I join at 2:40. I never found out why, but I suspect it was to introduce Lilith and Scott to everyone in the family. After some conversation, we played Pictionary. This was a great event. I had everyone in my family that I felt close to at the same event. We could never have all these people together in real life. Eight were on the east coast, five were within driving distance of each other. There were six on the west coast and three here in Hawaii, including me. We proposed doing this for all family events even after Covid is over.
Damon said he is ‘seeing’ more distant friends now. He has east coast friends he saw once a year. Now, he’s zooming with them regularly. Cylin said that she’s started Zooming with friends she only had contact with on WhatsApp.
The rest of the evening was normal, except that I’ve got this Happy Birthday crown glued to my head. I promised Lilith that I would make this my birthday month. Will I develop head calluses?
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