BIRTHDAY

The history of the April family birthdays is that there are only two celebrations for all three. My daughter’s is the 22nd mine on the 23rd and granddaughter #1 the 28th. Guess which two get celebrated. I gave up a personal birthday when my daughter was born. Then there was the travel period of my life when I was often gone for my birthday, especially if it was a weekend. So yesterday was “our birthday.” Granddaughter #1 will be 13 next Wednesday and wants to invite all 5000 of her facebook friends (35 actually. I exaggerate). There were no expectations for me for today. Boy was I surprised.

The day began with pumpkin pie. Kiki gave it to me last night. She knows pumpkin is my favorite. It arrived with real whipped cream. Since pumpkin is a vegetable and is good for me, I had it for breakfast. That’s also why my favorite cake is carrot. It’s really a vegetable. With that kind of thinking I can always get enough vegetables in my diet. I thought having the pie early in the day would give me plenty of time to work it off.

Returning to my kitchen I saw a card had come under my door and the envelope read “gift at door.” Janet had made me her marvelous cheesecake. I quickly put it in my fridge so I could get it out of my mind. I would have that special treat with friends later.

I walked into the other building to get some coffee and was overwhelmed with the incredible smell of fresh baking cookies. They were just being taken out of the oven. They were macadamia nut cookies. Nuts are good for you so I had two. Fun talk at the table! We mostly talked about how us poor helpless single, lonely and aging adults were being screwed over by nearly everyone. That is a fun discussion around here. Usually it focuses on the government, but today it extended to credit card companies, banks, healthcare, interest rates, the retirement industry, yes, there is one and it’s big. If we get extra money, rent goes up. He we have any in the bank we lose help with medical expenses. Complaining is a blast. We all walk away felling better. Nothing has changed, but we knew that going in.

Finished a puzzle with a few people in the afternoon. Skipped an official lunch. Wasn’t hungry. Wonder why? Went knocking on the doors of everyone in my building about 3:30 inviting them to come share a slice of cheesecake. Ended up with 8 of 18, and one more from the other building. Pretty good for sudden notice I thought. We talked till 5:30 coat tailing from one hilarious incident to another. Maria offered to take me out for supper. I was hungry for real food. She suggested Shari’s for their fully loaded potatoes soup. It was terrific, but it added to the price I am paying. Potatoes: good. Onions: good. Soup: good. Cream soup: bad. Cheese: bad. Sour cream: bad. The onions fit my diet.

When we got back to “The Home” I was met with a card and five sweet treat squares that reminded me what my wife always make for her friends and special occasions. They are on a stick like kabobs. Kabobs: good. Forget the rest. I had two, and put the leftovers in the fridge where I saw the quarter of cheesecake stilling sitting and calling to me. The best part of the cheesecake is that it doesn’t taste sweet. That’s also the worst part. I can’t believe it, but I walked away.

PS: The story about the snake is most true. Over exaggerated by my over anxious friend. I still can't believe I never heard. What am I, chopped liver.