Happy Birthday Me!!

I turned 49 a year ago tomorrow.  I was all right with that.  I didn't really care.  But, about a couple of months after that, I realized that in less than a year I would be 50.  When my daughter turned 30, it really was a horrible feeling.  How could I have a 30-year-old daughter??  I am not old enough to have a 30-year-old daughter.  I also had to deal with my baby boy getting married last year - which made me feel like I really was getting older.

I think it was after Crystal's birthday that I devised a plan.  I was going to take a couple of days off, I was going to get a hotel room - a hotel with a pool - and I was just going to hide out and ride it out.  I had it all figured out.

Well, I decided that my kids might be a bit upset with me that I did this.  So, I went back to Plan B - I would do my usual and plan a "kids" birthday for me so that the entire family, including Zach and Chelsea, could have a good time.  I thought of going to Planet Play and setting up a birthday party.  I was going to call the rec center and see about having a swimming birthday party there.  Well, this little Mexico thing got in the way and I had procrastinated too long.  So, I sent out a message on facebook to my kids and copied and pasted it to Ted:

You are all cordially invited to go on a date with me on Sunday, February 12.  I am going to the Muppet Movie.  I invited you to attend, too.  I am planning on the 4:00 showing and then getting some food. Not sure what kind.  I DO NOT WANT ANY GIFTS!!  If you bring a gift, you will be sent home and not allowed to play with me.  I DO NOT WANT THIS TO BE CONSIDERED A BIRTHDAY PARTY!! This is simply an invitation to a movie and dinner.  I am not having a birthday this year.  Thank you for your consideration and please RSVP.

We were going to go see the Muppet Movie and then go to Pei Wei for dinner.  Then my son responds saying he would rather go later, since he may have to go to work if his co-worker doesn't show up to cover his shift.  So, I tell him we will plan on the original unless his co-worker doesn't show up.  So Crystal tells me that she would rather go to the later one, too.  I had planned the earlier movie, because tomorrow is a school day and Zach needs to be to bed early.  So, we ended up changing it to dinner at 5:30 and the 6:50 movie.

I under no circumstances wanted a party!!!!  In the last couple of months, I had heard of a couple of people turning 50 years old and their families throwing them parties.  My friend Rayna's family called and invited me to hers and Sara had talked about throwing her mom a surprise 50th birthday party.  When she told me about that - I literally told her that if she was my kid, I would have to kill her.  UGH!!  Why would anyone want a party to celebrate them getting old?!?!

Well, what I didn't know, was in the background some lunatics - whom I love and adore - were literally going crazy.  Invitations had been sent out, pictures had been purloined, videos had been produced, presents had been purchased.  Ted and I start out on our way to the movie and he doesn't go the way I thought.  He says we have time so we're taking our time.  When he turned up and started going south - I knew something was up - and he told me we weren't going to the movie.  I nearly jumped out of the car and told him I was going to walk to my mom's.  Little did I know, the little old lady who I had spent pretty much the entire afternoon with and who had hardly been out since her open-heart surgery, was sitting in my friend Sara's living room waiting to yell surprise - along with my kids,  Zach and Chelsea, a couple of my sisters and a brother-in-law, Tammy and Curtis, lots of my friends from work and Rayna.  So many people - I don't even know if I really even saw all of them!!!

Though I grumbled and groused, I can't tell you how much I really do appreciate that they cared enough about me to spend their evening with me and to celebrate my birthday.  I love each and every one of you and I love you from the bottom of my heart.  The biggest kudos to Elaine, Sara and Crystal for putting it all together - I am not sure how it all went down, but they really kept the secret well!!!