Memories of Birthdays

Wednesday, May 16th, 2007, 12:41 am


This week on Connect Carnival, we were challenged to think about birthdays- our own special birthdays or other ones. A few popped into my mind, and I could not choose just one, so you get to hear about three significant birthday memories, have fun!!

The first one I think of is the ONLY thing I have ever pulled over on my husband. It was his ... however old he was birthday party, about six years ago.

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Jay and I had been together a few years. I love birthdays. Birthdays are my "thing", I do not believe that birthday's should ever be overlooked. So, for a couple of years I tried to surprise Jay for his birthday doing this or that, and he always figured it out ahead of time. It would have been the birthday of 1999. Jackson was just a baby then (born 1-2-99). I knew of one person Jay called 'friend", we're both selective in a way about who we call friends vs acquaintances, if that makes sense. It was a guy that was a groomsman in our wedding, and I overheard Jay mention him working at a retail store in town. So I set out for "THE Party". I went and asked his friend to help, because I had heard of two other friends they all used to hang out together, so the groomsman friend agreed to get their end of the party together.
It wasn't a "party party" (that was two years before that), but I arranged for the WHOLE family to be there (like, MY whole family, lotta people), plus his friends. but here's where it got sticky.

I had made the reservation at Sagebrush for the party. I had a custom coca cola cake made for him (had the emblem sprayed on it with the exact font/text, etc ..) ... Jay is a HUGE Coke fan/collector. All the plans were made. It was going to happen. Planned far in advance, I was doing GOOOD. Until we learned we needed to move. When did we move? The day/night before the party. Guess what else happened? I got sick. Like, FEVER sick. Deathly sick- I don't handle fevers well AT ALL. MIL kept insisting that I needed to cancel, but I had NO way of calling his friends, because I always met the one at his pt job to chat about the details! It HAD to happen, whether I was running a 103 fever or NOT!

So I had mom and dad come get Jackson, saying they were in the area and thought they'd give us a small break to have a chance to breathe. Then I mentioned getting something to eat (fevers make me delusional, like I cold eat then ...)

It was crunch time. Now or never. He was so happy to have some downtime he didn't hesitate to question why my parents were in the area, LOL! We ad moved 20 minutes above the city out in "the country". So I pull myself together, and we head out. He asks where would I want to go. I say "Why don;t we go to Sagebrush?- I've never been there ..." (I hadn't, besides planning the party lol) ... he said okay and off we went.

I don't know if it was the moving the day/night beforehand, but boy oh boy would I love to have a picture of the look on his face when he saw everyone there ... plus his friends. He was so surprised, so elated, and had such a good time. I was so happy it worked out well. "The" friend was only able to get in touch with one of their but the one that come, Jay was closer to and had not seen in YEARS.

Little did we know ... that was the last time Jay saw him because six months later he died ... of cancer. Tat is a birthday that will ever remain in my mind, because for one, Jay didn't figure ot out, but two, it showed just how fleeting life really is. *

--------------------------------------------- ------ The second one, was my 21st birthday.
Nothing outstandingly "special" except it was my only birthday party that BOTH sides, mom and dad's side, attended. It was really nice. Like true redneck style we had cases on cases of beer, I think we had a game of something going on ... and we roasted a deer shoulder on a sphit in the yard LOL!! But WOW was it good!! I was drunk for most of the afternoon, into the evening. The cookout was at lunchtime, and was over by 6.

So we chilled out a little bit, Jay took me to dinner (Rock-ola) where I got to order my first "Sex on the Beach" legally, lol Then after dinner we done the traditional "go-into-the-convenience-store-so-you-can-get -carded" trip ... and the guy didn't card me!!!

A little bit of history here. Jay and I met at work ... at a convenience store. he was my "new boss" that got transferred to the store I was at. We then helped my uncle start his own store, and it had not been too long before my birthday that Jay had got hit with the alcohol people (another post for another day) and had to do community service. So I knew all about the "consequences of not carding".

Needless to say, I gave the guy a (howbeit cute) lecture on how he should be glad it was the day it was or .... (blah blah blah), and made him card me in keeping with "tradition", LOL!!!

As Forest would say "That's all I'm gonna talk about right now" (or something like that, right?)

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The third one, was my 15th birthday (sorry, earlier it said 14, it was 15).
My parents never really instigated a social life for me. I never had birthday parties as a kid, aside from the 7th grade dinner we had ... at Rock-Ola (LOL) with three or four friends. Then at the ripe ol age of 14, my parents done the .... unbelievable for a 14 year old girl, but, they allowed me to have my first "real boyfriend", real as in, he had a car and drove it places-real, a whole two years older than me. ::deep dreamy sigh::: ;O) We had started dating in March, and my birthday is July 30th. It was your average day, I had antipcipated a GREAT night out with my honey and nothing else mattered. We decided to go to an early movie ... so we went to see Point Break. (Whatever happened to Patrick Swayze??)

Completely oblivious to everything else around me, we finished with the movie and was headed back to my house to hang out. We pull down the road I lived on, and all sorts of cars were at my house. They had planned a surprise party and he was apparently in on it! Had a bunch of friends there, it was just great. I actually still have a picture somewhere of a group of us at the party.

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So you see my theme with memories of birthdays, surprises and loved ones, basically. But I love surprises. I love giving them and getting them. I guess the reason these birthdays all popped into my mind at once, was because they were all shared with the people I cared about most; and to know someone cares enough about you to put forth the effort to surprise you in honor of the day you were born (even though as teenagers it was "party time!!", lol); but in Jay's case, to actually get something by him ... *snicker* hehehe ... it will be a long time before that happens again ... maybe.

Or maybe not?