Talk About it Tuesday
I’d be remiss if I didn’t talk about my birthday. Last Saturday, I turned 44. There’s nothing special about this age. In fact, I can’t wait to turn 45. That has been my favorite number my whole life. I just like how my mouth feels when I say it.
Even though it wasn’t a milestone birthday, Josh still made me feel special.
We didn’t actually celebrate on Saturday. The cake he was making needed some more time to set up properly so we pushed it to Sunday. However, we did get our free slurpees from 7-Eleven. I like to joke that free slurpee day is in honor of my birthday, but it’s really not. July 11th is 7/11, so it’s really just celebrating the date that has their namesake.
I didn’t spend the day lounging on the couch with knitting and a movie. Or a book. I’m really into Pride & Prejudice and am close to finishing it. I actually spent most of the day cleaning. Our living room curtains have been in need of cleaning for a while. Quite dusty at the top. So I took them all down and put them through the wash. I also dusted and swept and vacuumed the floors. Tasks that don’t get repeated as often as they should. It made me feel good to have that done.
Sunday was laundry and buying (and placing) a new rug for our dining room. Our old Ikea rug had seen some serious wear and tear and spills and stains.
As is the custom with birthdays, the birthday person requested a meal and a type of cake and the other person obliges. I initially requested gumbo, but it’s been super hot lately and the idea of eating a hot stew was not appetizing. So Josh made a seafood boil instead, because I still really wanted the shrimp aspect of the meal. He prepared a boil of lobster tail, clams, shrimp, smoked sausage, red potatoes, and corn on the cob. Our house still smells like fish, but it was worth it because that meal was SO good!
For the cake, I requested a poke cake. The kind where you poke holes in a sheet cake and pour in jello. It makes the cake extra flavorful and moist. Josh took my request and my love of the color orange and made the orangest cake I’ve ever seen.
That whipped cream frosting alone was divine!
The gift Josh gave me though, is something quite significant. His mom passed away almost 5 years ago. In the time since her passing, Josh has had her life insurance money sitting in his checking account. We’ve discussed what to do with it, but never really settled on any one idea. Over our anniversary meal, we discussed one possible option. For my birthday, it became real. Josh used the money to pay off his one big credit card. He is now debt free. Then he wrote me a check with 5 digits in the amount so that I could pay off my one big credit card and be debt free. He also included money for a down payment on a new car (not another Kia!). There’s still money left so that when our hvac unit finally goes to the big a/c graveyard in the sky, we can replace it. I haven’t been debt free since I signed up for my first credit card with the Visa people who were outside my freshmen dorm giving away free t-shirts. I deposited the check today and will have to wait for it to clear before making that final payment, but it already feels surreal to think that my next paycheck will only have to pay for my car insurance and cable bill. No more credit card payments. We’re going to wait a month to go buy my new car so that there’s time for my credit score to shoot up from having paid off my debt. It should make for a nice, lower monthly payment (hopefully).
All in all, it was a delightful birthday. I had time to truly enjoy it. No summer program at work to keep me stressed during the week and full of anxiety on Sunday evenings before going back for another week. And no dread that my birthday is about to be over because when I was a teacher, I refused to let myself start thinking about the next school year until after my birthday. Once my birthday passed, it was a downhill slide to the new school year. But not this year. Just as I wanted. Each weekend is just a regular weekend. Each workday is just a typical workday. Time is moving at an even pace. There’s nothing big coming up, just more of the same routine. And for that, I’m thankful.
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