It Was My Birthday...and I'll Smile If I Want To

Yesterday was my birthday…and oh, what a birthday it was!

It started off with many, many birthday wishes on Facebook (I’m telling you, Facebook has made birthdays even more fun). There was even an ADORABLE video posted by my sister, of my little niecey Nora Lu singing "Happy Birthday" to me.

A little while later, I was treated to the classic “Birthday Dirge” song, sung by my sister-in-law Anna on our answering machine. I LOVE the birthday dirge song. It goes like this:

Happy Birthday,
Happy Birthday,
Pain and suffering everywhere,
Happy Birthday.

It makes me laugh—and so every year, I feel like my birthday is not really here until I hear that song. Too funny!

Oh, also, my friend Diane sent me a “Biker Kitty” paper doll postcard. Yes, it is what it sounds like. It’s a cut-out of a cat with biker clothes that you can put on it. I don’t know where she got it from, but I found it sooo funny.

I also received some great gifts from siblings, from my Mom & Dad, and from Iwanski…but that wasn’t really what I loved so much about the day.

First of all, it was sunny and like 80 some degrees yesterday…perfect weather for Miss Healthypants!

Then, we stepped out the door and enjoyed a parade in my honor—okay, so it wasn’t really in my honor—it was Chicago’s Memorial Day parade—but still, it was pretty cool. Lots of marching bands playing patriotic music—so fun!

After spending some time at the parade, Iwanski and I went to my favorite Indian restaurant—India House. The lunch buffet at India House is the BEST—I love it! It’s also very overpriced—but hell, it was my birthday, and that’s where I wanted to go. Yum, yum, yum!

Then, Iwanski and I took a long walk—as we love to do—to our favorite place, the awesome but free Lincoln Park Zoo here in Chi-town. My favorite part of the zoo lately is the kangaroos—I love seeing them hop about in search of plants to nosh on.

After enjoying a lovely afternoon at the zoo, Iwanski and I decided to walk a bit along the lakefront. It was SUCH a beautiful day, and the beaches were crowded with locals and tourists in colorful swimsuits—it was quite a sight to see. We ended up walking all the way home, stopping along the way at the grocery store for hot dogs to grill for dinner (I had seen a guy eating a hot dog at the beach, and suddenly that’s all I wanted was a good Vienna Beef hot dog).

We arrived home, collapsed on the couch for a while, resting our tired, sore feet…and then Iwanski grilled up the hot dogs, and we enjoyed a yummy summery dinner. Along with the hot dogs, I enjoyed some potato chips and a fresh arugala salad (I recently tried arugala for the first time, and I LOVE it). Dessert was peanut butter-chocolate chip cookies. YUM!

After dinner, Iwanski and I played the Seinfeld Trivia Game that he bought me for my birthday—soooo fun! And I would challenge any of you who think you know a lot about Seinfeld, to try your luck against Iwanski and me—it turns out that we know A LOT about that t.v. show. (It’s a skill that we carefully cultivated while sitting on our asses on the couch—we earned all that knowledge!) Anyway, we played three rounds, and I won two of the three—which is how it should have been, since it was my birthday and all.

Then Iwanski and I settled back with a couple of cold beers and enjoyed some country music t.v. shows—including our favorite, the Marty Stuart Show. Dolly Parton was the special guest on the show and sounded as lovely as ever.

It was the perfect ending to a perfect day.

And as usual, I feel like the luckiest woman in the world.