So in case you have forgotten (ahem) my 26th birthday will take place this Saturday the 15th of May. Now normally at this time I would be busily preparing for a party or event. Picking out my special birthday outfit, anxiously awaiting Aunt Marcy coming in and spending my evenings making plans with my parents but this year I am doing none of that :( and I am pouty about it.
To be fair it is not my fault. I fully blame my parents and by blame I mean THANK YOU SO MUCH parents. My brother and I as you all know are approximately a year apart in age and so as we were growing up we switched birthday parties every year. One year he would get a Pro Park birthday, the next year I would get a Windy Hill birthday. There were trips to the Strawberry Patch, CiCi's pizza, scavenger hunts in Hugenot Park, water gun parties all complete with cake, friends and way too much sugar. These parties were glorious. Jonny and I were completely spoiled. It was not even annoying that during your 'off'' year you had to have a scaled down birthday because those were still amazing. On your birthday you were taken out for early morning bagels before school, got a new outfit (or tiara) to wear to class, and were treated to presents cake and your favorite meal for dinner.
Birthdays in our house were very special. They always have been. Even special for my parents who would go away one weekend a year leaving us with a sitter to celebrate their own birthdays. I don't know what it stems from or what the psychological root of it might be but my mom does several things in grand style and those include Christmas and birthdays. Jon and I were by no means spoiled or indulged children but we were loved and my parents made sure that important occasions were marked and celebrated. As we got older our birthdays evolved into trips, and experiences. Going to the Marriott Waterfront in Norfolk to shop at Nordstroms (which was not right down the street back in the day) and sipping Diet Coke with dad and mom and Jon while basking in a rooftop jacuzzi tub looking out on the water. Sigh. Birthdays were when you felt like a princess.
As I have gotten older birthdays have evolved and taken on different forms but there have always been constants and anyone who knows me will tell you that I am a stickler for tradition. You always get to sleep in for your birthday and are awoken by the sounds of a familiar tune wafting out of your tape player, or when that technology failed mom and dad just had to sing it themselves... it is a custom birthday song that my parents had made for both Jon and I about an alien from Mars who tried to find us the perfect gift but couldn't so he wrote us a song instead and singing it in my head right now I am getting misty because no one is going to sing it to me this year for the first time ever.
For my birthday breakfast I always go to Einsteins Brothers at Stony Point and sit outside and eat my bagel and sip my fountain bev. Then mom and I get manicures and pedicures and go shopping for jewelry to match whatever outfits we are going to wear to my party. The world goes crazy and keeps on turning but these things have stayed constant. Then everyone naps and gathers later to celebrate even if it is just Jonny and Mumsy and Popsicle. Candles and plastic things from birthday cakes in the past come out the song is sung and life is beautiful.
Plus there are always pretty banging presents :) Even if it is your 'on' birthday year the gifts were always exactly what you wanted and super special. Bikes, barbies, legos, dollhouse furniture, clothes and jewelry as you get older. Now that I am really old I get patio furniture, is it awkward that I still kinda wish it were Barbies?
Anyways I am being very nostalgic and reminiscing right now because it is therapeutic for me. This will be the first year that I won't see my family at all for my birthday and I feel awful for Gus because all I have done when I think about it that way is start to cry :( I understand that you have to grow up and things have to change but I think that some things should stay constant and untouchable. He is desperately trying to come up with a new birthday tradition and all I really want is the Birthday Zoom song and a Ukrops cupcake.
Instead of feeling super sorry for myself I have taken this chance to go back and find my favorite pictures from my last five years of truly amazing birthdays. The ones on this post are from when I turned 18, yikes! Can you believe how baby tiny I look? I can't seem to find any from my 19th birthday but enjoy the posts from years 20-25 :)
Twenty six will mark a new era and I am not sure if I have embraced it yet. I don't feel like I am ready to wake up without my birthday song yet. I hate growing up. But at least according to these pictures I have looked pretty damn good doing it. Enjoy and send me happy wishes on Saturday, or maybe send them to Herman.... he might need them more.
