I hope this isn't what the rest of my year will be like.

Today is my birthday.

It started in the loveliest way: with my favorite brunch. I had TWO bruleed grapefruits and four mini-deserts. I starved myself before going so I could eat everything, and that's exactly what I did.

Then, the plan was to go to a movie with our respective food babies. There's a theater across from Farmers, Fishers, and Bakers in Georgetown, so this would be logical and convenient. A chill way to spend a special day. We waddled over and realized there was nothing either of us really wanted to see. :( Damn it. So we dithered for a while and finally settled (SETTLED) for "American Hustle", even though G can only tolerate J-Law when she's playing Katniss Everdeen and I had to talk myself into it by reminding myself it had one of my favorite actors in it (Christian Bale, who is exactly one year older than me). So...yeah. We really didn't want to see it.

It was okay. 

Predictably, we were all "Meh" afterwards so we headed home. I wanted to nap before meeting my sister for dinner at 7. And nap I did. Huzzah! But at around 6, my sister called, sounding abjectly apologetic...her boyfriend was super ill, so ill that she couldn't even leave him alone. Overcome with concern for him, I told her to stay home (of course!) and that I'd cancel our reservation for her. That's when there was silence on the line. She paused.

"So...if you do that-- and thank you for that offer, by the way-- if you call the restaurant, they may not understand why you're cancelling for a party of four."

"Now I don't understand..."

"It was supposed to be a suprise dinner for you. I invited all of your closest friends. But one by one, they've all called me to apologize and cancel. Three people are also sick and they don't want to give you THAT for your birthday, two of your friends are experiencing flight delays from wherever they went for New Years. That means it'd only be a party of six, since L and C said they could make it...but that would really be a party of four, because we can't. I'm so sorry. I know you've always, always wanted a surprise party and no one has every done it for you. I wanted to, and I tried...I just can't believe how we're all having crises right now and disappointing you--"

"NO! Don't say that, it's the thought and intention behind it that counts! I can't believe you went through all this trouble for me...it's not even a 'milestone birthday'! Thank you so much, Veen..."

"Well, don't thank me for anything because nothing happened."

"Still. I hope P gets well soon and that you don't catch whatever he has as you play Florence Nightingale for him..."

...and our conversation tapered off. 

I'm not even going to lie, because you know what? Fuck it, this is the first real post on this site in years. I was sad. I would've loved that party! Due to the holidays, it had been a while since I'd seen some of those people. I was also worried about all of my friends; I knew severe weather was stranding people all over the country and I feared that my friends had come down with the awful bug that was destroying my sister's bf. Bummer, right? Panda felt terrible for me...he offered to take me anywhere I wanted, but we'd already had a huge restaurant meal and movie once today...so I decided to just stay home and feel grateful that so many people were planning on getting together to celebrate my life. And that's just what I did. So mostly happy birthday to me.

I hope 39 is the best year ever. I kind of need for it to be, after the tortured turn life has taken since 2011. Sigh.