As birthdays go, this one was definitely atypical. Usually, Shulamith and I take a whole day to celebrate. We always go to at least one movie, sometimes two. We get pedicures and sometimes facials or massages. We go shopping and eat inside restaurants.
None of that happened this year.
Enter COVID-19.
No movies. No pedicures. No facials or massages. No inside dining. Utah hit 1,900 new cases yesterday; we're not taking any unnecessary risks. One might argue that it was kinda lame as birthdays go, but that's not true. While I hope and dream that next year, and the next, and all the future years we can go back to our normal day of celebrating, this was still a lovely birthday.
Shulamith and I got takeout from Outback: steaks and loaded baked potatoes; Caesar salad for me, fries for her. We took all this to what we refer to as the "shady park," a nicely shaded park behind Hillcrest High School. We packed forks and steak knives and ate at a picnic table. It was comfortably cool but not too cold. I guess one upside to the serious climate crisis is the warm fall we've had, keeping us outside a little longer.
Then in the afternoon before I went to my evening hybrid class, Eli and Amanda stopped by to surprise me with a yummy peanut butter, chocolate chip cookie from Crumbl. It was so good.
This afternoon we had a family celebration, once again, at the "shady park." Shulamith made me chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and picked up delicious Thai takeout, yellow curry with chicken and potatoes. True comfort food. We talked and laughed and ate and talked and laughed some more.
Welcome to my COVID birthday. Some may say it was kinda lame compared to other years, but they would be wrong. It was different for sure. But when you have these four amazing humans by your side, your closest friends, nothing else really matters.
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