Well... the title may be a bit hyperbolic. After all, I haven't conducted an exhaustive review of all 48 previous birthdays (that count includes my 0th birthday for the math nerds out there), but today was the best I can remember. Many who are reading this know that my 48th year was not my favorite year. To those who don't know that, it may come as no surprise anyway: mid-life crisis (or mid-life change or transition or male menopause or The Change or whatever you want to call it) often hits guys around this age. So there's that. Fathers often feel a bit of the same emotional transition, too, regardless of their own age. And only a select few of you (all people I know IRW) know the full extent of how hard that has hit me this year. I'd rather not go into details now, but just rest assured it's been a helluva ride for me. Then there's my mother-in-law dying this year. That was a whopper. She passed about two weeks after my birthday last year and it hit me much harder than I gave it credit for at the time. I was expecting to need to be there to support my wife when she lost her mother. And her brother, and our son who lost his Gheegi, but I was not expecting it to hit me so hard personally. And it did. Yeah howdy, it sure did. Then there's the "enough already, 2016" phenomenon that's been so well covered by social media: the loss of seminal artists I respect deeply like David Bowie, Prince, Carrie Fisher, and so many others. I think one of the reasons this year's crop of dying celebrities hit social networks so hard is that this is really the first big wave of the seminal artists of "m-m-m-my generation, babe" to die of old age. (Hopefully Roger Daltry and Pete Townshend will still be around for awhile so we can sing that song without busting out in tears--due respect to John Entwhistle and of course Keith Moon, may they both rest in peace.)
Anyway, you get the point. My 48th year sucked. Enough said.
Today starts my 49th year, and I really hope the awesomeness of the celebration is indicative of an awesome year. Really, the celebration started last night. I was a mess yesterday. Stressed out and overwhelmed by that stress. Not a pretty picture. My most darling wife, Kathleen--my biggest supporter this year--swooped in and took care of business, getting dinner on the table (usually my "job"), taking more than her share of the responsibility getting our kid to bed, and showing me nothing but love and support the whole time. When I woke up today, the world looked brighter even before Kathleen and our son chimed in wishing me a happy birthday. Then Kathleen made me breakfast (again, usually my "job" in the mornings), which included delicious waffles, fresh strawberries, and bacon. That's right, a woman who hasn't eaten bacon since she was about 7 years old made me bacon, as she has done every year on my birthday. Cooking bacon is a full-body experience, and she is not the kind of non-pork eater who sneaks a bit of bacon now and then, she just plain doesn't like it. And yet she covers herself with bacon-grease splatters and stinks up the whole house with bacon smell for me every year. If that's not gonna make a guy feel special, I don't know what is. And that was all before 8am.
I don't always work on my birthday even when it does fall mid-week, but this year we had no choice, so we were on the Foley stage all day finishing off the footsteps and getting back into some props we didn't finish last week. Kathleen, yes the same Kathleen who cooked me bacon, walked some of the best Foley I've heard in a long time. Like probably since she did the gun sound for an actor who clearly wasn't comfortable holding a gun. I'm telling you, after she did that Foley, the guy looked badass with that gun in his hand. I still don't know how she did it, but she did. Well, today was even more impressive than that. We'll share more about the details when the movie is released (or maybe near release), but let's just say there's a prop that is generally considered an inanimate object by most people but which the director wants to come alive. Today it came alive for me. Kathleen did that. What a gift!
And then, and then! My 1st cousin had a baby today, so the latest member of our son's generation was born on my birthday. That's pretty cool. Thanks, Tova, for having your baby today!
Oh, yeah, then there's dinner. I got to make dinner tonight, and I love making dinner. I've been fine-tuning my chicken noodle soup (from scratch) recipe, and I think tonight's was the best I've made yet. And if Kathleen and Sorren disagreed with that assessment, they were kind enough to keep that to themselves. :D But AFTER dinner came the most awesome birthday cake, a gateau, beautifully designed, and presented with 4 candles to indicate decades (including BB8 and Kylo Ren candles, woah) and a big, fat 8. Such great presentation, complete with a pillow dance (from our boy) and, of course, a song (from both of them).
I also got a batch of delightful emails, too many facebook birthday greetings for me to respond to today, a balloon and edible arrangment from my mom (combine that with the gateau and our eating habits, and we've got dessert for a week!) and so very much love and goodness throughout the day.
Wow. I'm floored. Thank you, Kathleen. Thank you, son. Thanks, mom and dad. Thanks to everyone.
