Happy birthday weekend

I am 59! And thus beginneth the last year of my 50s. My 50s! I honestly still haven't adjusted even to being 50, and now I've got one year left until I'm 60. It's nuts. Is this how everyone else feels? Do all older people feel like this is some kind of joke? When I turned 30, I welcomed my 30s. I had heard good things about them. My 20s were very stressful, and I was ready for a change. And I really enjoyed my 30s, all the way through. Since then, though, I've had trouble. I felt that 40 sounded fat, 50 was impossibly elderly (considering that I had two-year-old twins at the time), and now 60 seems absurd. Well, I've got one more year to get used to the idea. Haven't enjoyed the first nine years of my 50s, so maybe the last year will be OK.

I had a nice birthday to kick it off. Longtime readers of my blogs know that I usually don't like my birthdays, but I did like this one. For starters, Rocket Boy came home for a visit. I'm really enjoying his visits, even though he and I do start sniping at each other eventually. But I feel a lot of stress ease off when he shows up -- for a little while I don't have to be responsible for EVERYTHING.

He arrived on Thursday, the 4th of July -- dead tired, because he'd had to get up at 4:30 to catch the MetroLink to the airport, and even then he almost missed his flight because there was a problem (a body) on the tracks and his train had to be rerouted. They held the airplane doors for him, but his suitcase came on a later flight. We had lunch at Great Scott's on the way home, but then he had to turn around and go back to the airport for his suitcase. Still, he was up for a barbecue on the patio that night, and even a quick trip up the hill to watch fireworks. He didn't save enough strength to play games with the kids that day, but there were games on the 5th, 6th, and 7th. Playing board games with Dad is one of their favorite things to do.

My birthday was Friday, and I didn't want to do anything special that day. We worked on chores, did errands, and ate a nice lunch out at the Southside Walnut Cafe. After lunch we picked up Kid A's new glasses and then went shopping for a new (bigger) bike for him -- something he badly needed and we couldn't afford until Rocket Boy got his new job. Kid B had expressed interest in getting a new bike too, but in the store he denied this, so we skipped it. I really hope he'll get back into riding -- he stopped several years ago after a bad accident -- but it's going to take more time. Kid A's bike is beautiful, kind of an orangey-red, and he LOVES it. When we got it home, he went speeding off on a ride, almost missing the Opening of the Presents.

I had ensured a good haul by ordering some gifts for myself -- clothes for my Barbie dolls. But it wasn't necessary, because I was so well remembered by my family. The kids (with RB's help) got me a lovely Barbie Closet, which included two more outfits and not enough hangers (my dolls have a lot of clothes). Rocket Boy brought me two iron garden decorations from St. Louis: a cardinal on a stick, and a red rose. I particularly like the cardinal (you can see it in the clump of flowers/weeds to the right of Kid B). My sisters were extremely generous with gift cards, and my older sister included some silly things like pudding mixes and little stuffed animals. Our next-door neighbor, Arlene, brought me a purple chrysanthemum, which I need to plant. Rocket Boy picked up a cake at the grocery store, we had leftovers for dinner, and there was an enormous, glorious thunderstorm, complete with hail the size of grapes! The streets flooded (briefly) and my flowers got smooshed, but they are recovering. My, I do love thunderstorms. The kids and I watched it from the porch (Rocket Boy and the cats, none of whom like thunderstorms, stayed in the house).

The goofiest part of the weekend had to be the Ridgecrest earthquakes, on the 4th and the 5th. Rocket Boy was sorry we missed them, but I wasn't. It sounded just awful, no power and no water in the desert in July. Trona, as usual, got the worst part of the deal.


Also this weekend, the reconstituted Grateful Dead (Dead & Co.) played at CU, so the city was crawling with out of state license plates and slightly-too-happy people. I decided my Barbie dolls were going to the Dead and did my best to dress them appropriately. They are all wearing sunglasses due to consumption of marijuana products, and Man-bun Ken is dressed like a crazy person because he took way too many drugs. Happiness is having enough tiny sunglasses for all your Barbie dolls to wear (though we did lose a pair when Rainbow Barbie toppled off the table, but I'm hopeful they'll show up).

Saturday was more errands and chores. Kid B had a birthday party to go to (just as Kid A did the last time Rocket Boy was home), so I had to drive him to Flatirons Crossing at 3:30 and then we picked him up at about 6:45. This made it hard to schedule dinner, but since Kid A said he wasn't hungry and Kid B had eaten pizza at the party, we left them alone in the house and went out to eat at Murphy's. We dubbed this a combination "paying off the credit card" and "early anniversary" dinner, since RB won't be home for that. In fact, right now he isn't scheduled to come back until Labor Day weekend (almost 2 months), so that will be a long stretch of aloneness. The kids will have been back in school for two weeks by the time he makes it home again.

So now it's Monday and I'm in charge of EVERYTHING once more. There's a real letdown after Rocket Boy leaves, but the sun is shining and I slept well, so I have some energy. The kids went to summer school (they have two more weeks of it) and I worked at home from 9:15 to 1:30. After school, Kid A rode his new bike to the library to play on the computers and Kid B came home to play on his computer here. (Sigh. At least they used their brains at school.) I have done the dishes and fed the cats twice, started a load of laundry and written this blog post. Now I need to do another cleaning task and decide what to have for dinner. After dinner I might do a little pruning and/or take a walk. Unless we have another thunderstorm, which would be awesome.