My birthday was Sunday, and it sent me down memory lane, thinking about past birthdays:
The one in Las Vegas where my parents took us (and my sister's family and my dear friend Adrienne) out to dinner at P.F. Chang's (remember when you could eat at a restaurant with a bunch of people and no masks?!). On the way to the restaurant, we got a flat tire on I-15, and so I changed it on the side of a busy highway in August while the sun was still up. It was terrifying and sweaty, but somehow I still look fine in the pictures so... ah, youth, I guess?
Then I remembered the year I turned 5 and got Donny and Marie dolls for my birthday. It was in Arkansas, but still late August, so pretty hot, and we had my party outside at a park. It was fun, but when I opened my gifts, the first thing I saw was Donny. And I was MAD. Why the heck would my parents just give me a Donny doll? He didn't even have any hair to brush! I realized as I opened it that Marie was in there, too, just underneath the Donny package. But my mom caught a picture of it, and captioned it as though I were puzzled. I wasn't. I was trying not to cry.
Whoo, remembering this helps me have grace for my own (and others') children who might not have a polished gratitude game.
Then there was the birthday 8 years ago when my sister threw me a party and had collected a bunch of letters and cards from far-flung family and friends, and had a party with an intentional Cake Wreck for me.
After the party, I was to drive to Dallas and take D to see Ken, while I spent the weekend with James. But first, Ken had car trouble and couldn't get to Dallas. D was happy to spend a couple of days with the Brownies. So I made my way north, and the 3.5-hour drive ended up taking 6 hours because a motorcycle had driven off of the Adams/Central overpass to 35 in Temple. While I was extremely sad for the loss of the person who was killed, I was also stressed about driving alone and getting into Dallas that late. I did manage to pull into the parking space at James's apartment at about 11:40 PM, so we got to see each other on my birthday.
It's kind of funny, though... going back in time in my mind made my emotions really raw and I spend a couple of days remembering every time I've said or done something that might have embarrassed or hurt someone, and each time I do that, I contemplate writing apology letters as blog posts. It would take me MONTHS to do all of them. And, I know from experience when I didn't have any more words to write for a novel I was working on during NaNoWriMo 2012 that writing for catharsis is EXHAUSTING. So if I've ever wronged you, please reach out to me and I'll own up to it privately. That way I don't have to worry about the people who don't remember the slights that still weigh heavily on me.
Oh, one final picture and it's from my birthday this year. When I look at it, I think, "If my hair grows this much in one year (and a few months; I stopped coloring it last June), then I feel like it should be A LOT LONGER. I'm not getting it trimmed anymore, and not just because of COVID. I bought the Split-Ender and have used it twice. I'm trying to keep my hair in some shape without getting 2-3 inches chopped off every time I go in for a haircut (which is maybe every 6-9 months). I know it probably makes it healthier, but I want it to be VERY long, then I'll cut off the crap at the bottoms and still have plenty long hair.
P.S. The people in the Split-Ender ad have had their hair razor-cut. It does not make that even a trim, because your hair grows unevenly and it trims off the bottom 1/4 inch, which means it is going to stay uneven and get MORE uneven as your hair grows out. I don't care about that. I rarely have a uniform cut more than a week or two after I get my hair professionally cropped, anyway.
🙂
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