A Plan Emerges

This will probably make for dull reading, but I am excited. I have finally figured out what to do for my birthday, which is something I don't care about most years but care about a lot this year. I can't decide if my determination to do something special is a celebration of life or a show of triumph in getting through the past year. Maybe it's some of both, or at least they are connected. My big time started this past weekend when my youngest son and his girlfriend came to Jacksonville for a concert and stayed at my house for the weekend. On Sunday morning, my middle son and his girlfriend joined us for brunch and then we all watched the Redskins game. Or I should say they all watched the Redskins game. At least we were together. When the game was over, we went out to dinner at the restaurant of my choice, and my youngest son picked up the tab. I even had a drink, a blackberry jalepeno margarita. I tried to have a second one but got only about halfway through it.

So that was Part 1. Part 2 will happen on Friday -- unless something else happens in between, in which case the Friday event will be Part 3, or maybe even Part 4. I made an appointment at a spa downtown for a body wrap and hot stone massage, for a total of two and half hours of pampering me-time. I just can't wait. I've never had either kind of spa treatment before. The body wrap is supposed to take inches off your body, although it is temporary. That's okay. I don't mind being temporarily leaner.

Then, for the main event, my middle son and his girlfriend are "abducting" me on Saturday (my actual birthday) and whisking me away to parts unknown. Well, they know, but I don't. I have a suspicion, but I'm not even telling them my guess. I love surprises so I'll play along. And I'm glad they thought of something to do and I didn't have to. My ideas weren't playing out so well, and all I had come up with was that I wasn't going to sit around the house. And now I'm not. As my son's girlfriend says, "Big times!"