She’s’a my Birthday! I’m turning 59. Wow. My last year as a fifty-something. I can’t even conceive of the fact that next year I will be SIXTY. Sixty-year-olds are OLD! Ha, sorry. What I mean is, when I was younger, 60 SEEMED SO OLD. Like, grandparents and even GREAT-grandparents are in their 60s. They have grey hair (well…) and walk with canes and sit in rocking chairs and knit. Ha. Maybe that’s 80-year-olds.

Anyway, I was just thinking about past birthdays in my life (and there’s a lot of them!) and I found I could actually only remember two. One was when I was between 6-8-years-old and lived in Newark, Delaware. I had a birthday party at my house and invited all my classmates from school. We played outside in the yard and had cake and Kool-Aid. Very low-tech. Not like the high maintenance parties of today.

One little boy (I don’t remember his name) kept coming up to me and saying, “I got you The Best Present!” and “You’re Not Going to BELIEVE what I got you for your birthday!” and “This will be your FAVORITE birthday present ever!” Well, my little 6 or 7-year-old mind ran wild with ideas of what this GREATEST BIRTHDAY PRESENT OF ALL TIME could possibly be. A pony? An airplane? A Barbie dream house?

Finally, we got around to opening presents. Guess what his present was. Go ahead. Guess.

A JUMP ROPE. A cotton jump rope with plastic handles. THAT was the greatest present of all time. I was SO disappointed. I don’t know if I let that on. I hope not. He had been SO excited. I hope I didn’t ruin his excitement. Like he ruined mine. Ha.

The other birthday I actually remember I think I was 30? Maybe 29? On the morning of my birthday, my husband (I can’t even remember if we were married yet – we got married when I was 29)/boyfriend said we’ll do whatever you want today. Go where you want, eat where you want, and I’ll buy you whatever you want. So we went for a drive out east, stopping at all the little garden centers and antique shops I always passed on my way to places but never took the time to stop at. And he patiently waited while I looked at EVERYTHING, didn’t tap his feet or say “I’ll wait in the car.” He was a cooperative and patient participant. I loved two partial sets of old dishes – one white with a lacy scalloped rim and the other, green and white transferware (the first of MUCH transferware over the years). And he bought me my $11 worth of dishes and I was thrilled. Then we continued out east, had lunch in a dark bar in a seaside town…and then headed home. It was a lovely day. But, unbeknownst to me, it was not yet over!

When we got home we had dinner and just as we were finishing up there was a knock on the door and it was…(bear with me here, I can’t remember the exact details of the order in which people arrived or what they brought with them, so I’m going to employ a little literary license)…my sister-in-law with a bunch of balloons. HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Oh how nice, I was thrilled with the visit and the balloons. About 10 minutes later, another knock on the door. It was my mother- and father-in-law with a couple bottles of champagne. Wow! What a coincidence (I can be slow to catch on)! A little later, one of my friends arrived with a birthday cake! You’re not going to believe this – there other people here with balloons and champagne! DUH. Russell (husband/boyfriend) had arranged for everyone to arrive incrementally, and bit by bit, they brought me a birthday party! There were probably a dozen-ish people in all by the end, with gifts and flowers and balloons and champagne and cake! It was such a surprise and so lovely and to this day, remains my favorite birthday ever.

I don’t know yet what I’m doing this year. But. Happy Birthday to Me.

We did these pictures on our outing to Coney Island last week. I was So Hot!!! I can’t wait til winter so I can move around outdoors without sweating! Does anyone else have that problem?

What I Wore

  • Maeve Boswell Blouse from Anthropologie, size 26. No longer available in plus, but available in this and other prints in straight sizes here. Runs a little large.
  • Charlotte Russe Refuge Skinny Jeans, size 22 short. No longer available, but similar here and here.
  • Abella blush pink D’Orsay flats, sold out. Extremely similar here and here.

Photo credit to She Who Shall Remain Nameless. Thank you for always taking my picture when I ask!

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