It's Not All About HIM

*The first time I sat down to type this, I got as far as the title and Monkey started crying...shows me!*

So I just celebrated my last birthday in my 20's. I feel ok about it. Really. I do. Stop judging me.

The day started off when I inexplicably woke up at 5:00a.m. sharp and laid in bed, awake, for about an hour. That was fun. I finally went back to sleep for an hour and then was woken up by the sounds of Pfunk- he did not seem to care it was the day to celebrate my birth and perhaps I would like to sleep in a bit. Anyway, usually when I hear him, I get up get dressed, brush my teeth and watch the news- yes that is right from the moment my feet hit the floor I'm multitasking. I'm amazing- it's just how I do. However, on this day, my birthday, the TV was broken and I could not watch the news and had to dress and brush in silence.

Well I say broken, but what I mean is that the TV was somehow switched to a station that does not pick up the Comcast Cable signal and I could not get the TV remote to work. Yes, I know I can program the Comcast remote, but...it's broken...and I don't feel like it- ever.

Then I got Pmoney dressed and we went about our normal Blue's Clues watching, milk drinking and general lounging morning routine. He seemed entirely disinterested in the fact that it was my birthday- talk about selfish.

My mom was visiting, so after Pman and I were done lounging she took us out to lunch at Applebees. The highlight here was Pmonkey had his first corn dog (loved it) and was (for once) not the loudest baby in the joint. Make no mistake he is typically well behaved in restaurants, but he likes to do this squealy thing and then he looks around to see if anyone responds. If he does not get the reaction he is looking for (I'm not exactly sure what reaction he deems acceptable) then he stares people down until they tell him he is cute, then he giggles and picks out his next target.

From here my mom, Psizzle and I went to a cute store called Lemondrop, commented on their neat stuff and high prices and left empty handed. We headed over to the shoe store and my mom bought me a new pair of tennies. This was followed by a trip to Nick's (for mom) and then home as it was nap time for Pman.

If you do not know what Nick's is, I will explain. It is basically a butcher shop with a slightly overpriced grocery store area and they sell wine. Between the meat and meat-like products and all the wine, Josh and I can spend all day in this place. You can find him over by the meat counter in some sort of trance-like state drooling over the meat and meat-like products. You can find me in the wine aisle trying to figure out if I could possibly unscrew a bottle of wine, drink it and put it back on the shelf without anyone noticing. I truly think this could be accomplished it I picked a dark bottle with a large label.

Every once in a while when my mom comes to visit my dad sends her on a Nick's run. She is to purchase as much meat as she can fit into a very large cooler and transport the whole thing across many county lines. I'm not sure if this is illegal. But if she were to get pulled over and the cop searched her trunk, I am fairly certain the amount of meat would be alarming and the cop would call for back-up and my mom would be on the evening news.

After we got home from the Nick's run, Pman took the aforementioned nap and my mom enlisted me to help her "sort the meat." This means I had to help her put roughly 40 pounds of meat into freezer bags and then label them so my dad does not get confused. Huh? Apparently a sirloin and a chicken look the same frozen.

It's pure glamour here in the Phillips house.

Then I gave myself a pedicure with dollar store polish remover and dime store tissues leaving me with tiny wads of acetone soaked mauve colored bits. I would have had better luck removing my polish with a wipey, at least I know (and I mean KNOW) they are durable.

From here Josh came home from work. We took a family picture since at least Josh and I were dressed up, Parker had macaroni in his hair (which is odd because he does not eat macaroni)and bits of cookie smooshed into his shirt. Then Josh gave me some bday loot. I will not bore you (diamond earrings) with details (million dollar winning lottery ticket) about the gifts (full body Swedish massage in Sweden)that my wonderful husband bestowed upon me (I'm lying about all of that stuff- but he did come up with some very thoughts gifts. I will not bore you by listing them.)

My birthday was closed out with a nice dinner, just Josh and me at a local joint. My mom was with Parker, relax. I had scallops, which is not important, except that the waitress brought me pineapple upside down cake in celebration of my day. The cake was terrible and I swear had the same sauce on it as my scallops. I am not sure what the sauce was, but I assure you, there is no sauce that is appropriate for both scallops and cake. Not even chocolate, which this sauce was not anyway. In the future, a bowl of chocolate sauce would work out just fine.

I was in bed sleeping before 9 p.m. Party animal, I know. Try to keep up.

My birthday came and went without real cake, much to Pman's dismay. I don't mind. Some of you may recall, I did not even have cake at my wedding. I do not need cake for a celebration- now, wine I need.

Over the years birthday celebrations have changed for me, as for most adults I imagine. I do love having a summer birthday and if I have anything to say about it, I would like to have all my babies in the summer. The pool parties, crab feasts, birthday dinners in new locations if we happened to be on vacation that year- it all rocked. The only thing that sucked was not being able to bring cupcakes to school to celebrate my day like the kids with fall, winter and spring birthdays. I also never got balloons in high school to cart around all day so everyone knew it was my day. I think I was one of the few kids who hoped we would have enough snow days so we would still be in school on July 16.

I did have a good 29th Birthday, but you know, they kind of lose their appeal after the 21st. I love birthdays. Not just my own, but birthdays in general. I think it is a very neat thing that as a culture we celebrate the birth of the people important to us. Like a "Hey, I like you and I think it is neat to know you." kind of thing. I know Parker will eventually have birthdays that seem lackluster and are more of just a day with cake than a full out celebration, it is inevitable. My goal for his childhood birthdays is to make them fun and memorable, so he loves his summer birthday too.

Damn look at that, I guess it IS all about HIM, even when I set out to make it all about me. I am just so giving and always thinking of others. I'm pretty amazing really.