Birthday Countdown and Birthday Remembered

Well, the countdown has begun! On June 12, I shall embark on a whole new decade. How exciting!

Still don't know what I'll be doing for the Big Day. Probably nothing, at this rate. I can never be bothered to plan anything. I was thinking that perhaps a bonfire at the beach would be a good option, but that involves inviting people, and setting a time and place to meet, and all sorts of other organizational necessities, and really, do I need that kind of stress when I am already turning 30?

But a bonfire would be fun. Hmmm.

I've never been one for big birthday parties. My 21st was cool, although it was a month after my birthday, and quite a surprise for that reason, among others. Other than that one, the only other birthday I recall with any sort of clarity (good grief, am I losing my memory already??) was a few years ago, I think it was my 27th. Er, 26th? Dang. Well, anyway. We had gone sailing the day before, my roommates and I, and I had gotten very sunburned. I hadn't put any sunscreen on, because "I don't burn...I tan."

Ha. After three hours under the blistering sun, sailing on the San Francisco Bay where not a lot of shade is in evidence, unless you want to hang out under the Golden Gate or Oakland Bay Bridge all day, I was burned. Badly. I put on sunscreen when I started to feel it, but of course by then it was too late. The next day I woke up with a raging headache, and feeling very ill. I also had trouble putting clothes on, specifically (can I say this on a family-friendly blog? I'm going to) my bra. Oh the pain of it! I wanted to die!

I called in sick to work, and lay on the couch all day, feeling utterly miserable. Here it was, my 26th (or 27th) birthday, and I wasn't going to have a good time, all because I couldn't be bothered to put on a little sunscreen. It was tragic.

My sister came home and she offered to cook a nice BBQ dinner out on the deck, so I went out there with her, and that was fine, but I still felt sad. Then my friend Steve called to wish me happy birthday, and that was good, but I felt bummed that we wouldn't all be hanging out to celebrate, which is what we would normally do. We were chatting on the phone when suddenly who should come out onto the deck but...Steve! And my other friend Mark! My sister had invited them without telling me, and seeing them was such a surprise! I was very pleased, and very touched. (Although I mean the latter in a metaphorical sense; I don't know that they actually touched me, because if they had I would have screamed first and disintegrated second, I'm sure of it. Just because I was happier didn't mean my sunburn had miraculously healed!)

I remember that birthday with the most fondness, I think. Because it started out so horrible, and turned out so very good.