Celebrating one's birthday can really take it out of you.
The party started on Tuesday and involved dinner with Brian and the Bear. We debated all day where to go ("Bear-friendly," if you will) and finally decided on the BBQ place that we always go to. It's safe, it's good, and best of all, we might be able to sit outside and allow our child to not bother other dining patrons while he rubs food in his hair and flings things indiscriminately around the restaurant. Ah, toddlers.
The only problem is that when we arrived, they seated us in the kid section. I know, I know, we have a kid. But our kid is like, a good kid. (forget I just wrote the entire preceding paragraph). Seriously - he's not super mobile yet, and he really can sit still for about 45 minutes, unlike the shrieking, hyperactive monsters at the surrounding tables. It was like dining at a preschool.
Then the service was terrible, the food was bad (and wrong - I had to send mine back twice) and dinner dragged on for almost an hour and fifteen minutes. Well into Scotty's bedtime. It was so irritating that we skipped the free birthday dessert and just tried to get out of there as soon as possible.
I think Scotty knew it was my birthday, as he kept a look-out for the singing wait staff and a flaming pastry. Check out his expressions during dinner -- you can tell he was worried.
Whatever.
On the way home, I was almost run off the road by a crazy driver. In what I can only describe as a few of the scariest seconds of my life, a driver merged into my lane - pinning me directly between his car and a large white van - while going about 70 miles an hour. I have no idea how we didn't end up in a wreck, since I absolutely cut the van off in an attempt to miss being side-swiped by the other guy, but we didn't. Thankfully. But I arrived home (just as Brian got there - we had driven separately since he came straight from work) crying and shaking and went straight to bed.
Fun.
On Wednesday, Part Deux of the Birthday Celebration, Brian and I had plans to go to a nice restaurant. Again, the night started out rather poorly because we had one stop before dinner and it ended up being a total disaster. I'm not going to elaborate on that, since I'm not sure who reads this, but let's just say Brian and I were both extremely unhappy with the way some things turned out, and it left a really bad taste in our mouths.
So by the time we reached dinner, we were ready for a great meal. And it was great - except they forgot the birthday cake. Brian had planned ahead for a nice dessert - and it was nice - but no cake. It was like a frou-frou fancy petit-four creation that I loved, but Brian was a little bummed. I mean, it had my name on it. What more could you ask for?
As to be expected, I am really tired of being feted. I mean, a girl can only take so much. After three celebrations, I now feel like I am 35 instead of 32. Here's hoping next year we can get it right in one shot.
Off to eat my maple-bacon cupcake.