Saturday, June 10, 2006

Is It 29 Again?

Yes, it's true. I had another birthday on Friday. 47. Birthday I really do enjoy celebrating my birthday and I feel that age is a gift. On the day of my birthday one of my wishes did come true. I didn't have to attend the AIA convention with Michael in Los Angeles this weekend. I suppose staying at the Bonaventure Hotel might have been interesting, but other than that I would have been bored. New innovations in roofing material, state-of-the-art door knobs, and the latest in computer drafting does not excite me. I spent the day at my "new" old house sanding the floor in the master bedroom. Yeah, I know how to have fun... I actually enjoyed sanding the floor. It sure beat painting. Michael said he felt bad about not being there for my birthday but we'll celebrate later. When he called me after a day at the convention at dinner, his business partner made the whole restaurant sing "Happy Birthday" to me through the cell phone... That's a first. A friend of mine did take me out for a birthday drink, which was a nice gesture. He kind of went out of his way to do that but he thought I should do some sort of celebrating on my day. I came home early and was looking forward to a long, uninterrupted sleep...

At about 4:00 AM, I am jolted out of by sleep my Evan, my grandson. For some reason he felt like visiting me, not mommy... He usually sleeps well, so this little EARLY morning visit was unusual. He climbed up into bed with me and wanted to chat... "Mimi, where's Lumpy?" (The cat)... "Mimi, MY moon is outside." "Mimi, where's baby bear?" "Mimi, where's my blankie?" after several more questions and statements he became quiet and fell asleep. He woke me up at about 7:00 AM, with his finger in my ear and said, "Mimi's ear!" Yay me... He then went and woke up his mommy and she took care of things from there. Since I was up, there was no use sleeping in. Oh well.

I had a mini reunion with three of my friends from high school. We TRY to meet every 6 months or so. We met at PF Changs for a feast. Chinese Restaurant I think there was one plate we didn't even get to try because there was so much food... THEN, my friends pulled a fast one on me and the waiter brought out a birthday cake... It was a cake from the little Chinese bakery known for their cakes. It was chocolate. Yum... I'm gonna pop...


Michael is now on the road home from Los Angeles. Tonight we're going out with friends, but I'm gonna keep the food and drink light, very light...

The marathon pictures were finally posted but I couldn't post anything while Blogger was down for maintenance.... Since the photos have a copyright, I can't post them here, but I can post the links... In this first picture, I think it's around the half way point because I still have a decent stride. In this next photo, I'm crossing the finish line. Finally, this is how things looked when we started the race... It was like "running down a dream" in the fog...

Peace

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Sounds like you had a great one all in all.

I love PF Changs...or I should say that I loved them until I realized you could get all of the nutrition information on the web. Yikes.

Marathon pictures are great! Your stride is so long at the half way point.

shpprgrl said...

Happy Belated Birthday! Sounds like you have some great friends that know how to supply yummy cake. Enjoy your celebration when he returns too! Great finish line picture too!

Anonymous said...

Happy birthday!! You're a grandmother? Good on you. My mom was only a couple of years younger than you are now when I was born. Having older parents is good in some ways, but I never knew my grandparents and have always felt that loss.

Donna said...

Happy Birthday!!! Sorry I missed it. Great pictures, thanks for linking those.

Melissa said...

Well first off, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! I hope you enjoyed every bite of that cake, you deserved it! YUM, I love chocolate cake.

Great pictures!! The one finishing is great, so cool that you raised your hands, what an accomplishment. And what a neat pic at the start of the race!! Thanks for sharing!

FV Tom said...

Happy Belated Birthday!

I love the pics!

Miss Rachel said...

(Belated) happy birthday!

Irene said...

Cathy,
Thanks for the birthday wishes!
I think there are only two or three things on the PF Changs menu that are "OK." I think the only thing on the menu that I had that was "OK" was the brown rice. Everything else had sauces that put everything over the nutritional edge. I did have a wonderful birthday... It lasted all weekend long! I held the stride until mile 22.... Do you think I'll catch up to the Kenyans someday? LOL...

Shpprgrl,
If there's one thing my friends know how to do is select realy delicious food! The cake was wonderful! Thanks. I had a great day!!!

Sister Smile,
Thanks! I love birthdays! We had our kids relatively early. Our college friends thought we were insane, but it worked for us. Most of them have very young children now, since they chose the college/career path first. It all works out in the end.

Donna,
Thanks! No, you really didn't miss it... I posted about it after the fact.... :) I love that the event takes pictures. It makes it easy, as long as they can see your race number. :)

Melissa,
Thank you! The cake was great! The reason why I held my arms up at the end was so that I would get a decent photo finish. Last year I had my arms at my side and my head down, so the photo wasn't that great. I made sure my arme were up and I was looking up, because that's where the photographers are, on a scaffold above the finish line. If you ever run a marathon or half marathon, keep that in mind. :)

Tom,
Thanks!!!!!! :)

Rachel,
Thanks!!!!!! Not too belated.... :)

Kimberly said...

Love the race photos! Are you ordering some? Especially since you got the great finish pose at the end.

Fun birthday stuff (well, except for the 4 am wakeup call). Happy Birthday!

Irene said...

Cherie,
I'll probably order a couple of the pictures... I did have a nice birthday. ;)

Rachel said...

Happy belated birthday, Irene! You look so fabulous - I NEVER would've guessed you were 47 years young. How wonderful that you're still in touch with a group of friends from high school. =P

I loved the photos from the race.

Your grandson sounds like fun. We call our grandma "Mimi," too. And grandpa is "Papaw." I think it's a southern thing?

xo, Rachel

Irene said...

Thanks Rachel! I had a wonderful birthday! It's great that I can still see a few of my high school friends. We make an effort do meet twice a year.

My grandson came up with "Mimi." It sort of evolved out of other names and just stuck. I like it. :)