The Big O

I’m having this dilemma about my birthday. Its coming up and its one of those that ends in a zero so you’re expected to celebrate it larger than one that ends in say two or seven. I don’t know what we have this strange thing about numbers. Sixteen is big, though for the life of me I do not know why. Nothing happens, nothing changes, but we still celebrate it in a bizarre kind of Ozzie and Harriet way. Twenty-one is celebrated but things do change, so it is a milestone worth marking. Then we get into this weird fives and zeros thing. Thirty, forty, fifty and then it just gets worse we when start celebrating being eligible for Medicare. Woo-hoo! I’m old and I’m going to need assistance, so let’s have a party! Well, I’m not there yet – but I’m not too far behind either.

Which brings me back to my quandary – what to do, or where to go. I thought I would go to a World Series game since I’m a big baseball fan and I’ve never been. But it doesn’t look like the teams that will be going hold any interest for me. And it would be quite expensive. And chances are not good my family will show up (partially due to who will be playing and partially due to the mere fact that it is baseball.)

Then I thought I could have a party here. I have this big hayloft just out my back door and we won’t be ordering hay again this year, so I could line the bales up along the edges and have…what? A dance? Bill doesn’t dance so that would be rather pointless. And really, any kind of party here would mean I’d have to clean. That just doesn’t sound like how I want to spend the weeks (and it would take weeks) before my birthday.

Or we could go somewhere. But where? We live in paradise – why would I want to pay someone to see scenery when people from all over the world come to see what we have? And besides, where could we go that would be enticing enough for our kids to come and hang out? That we can afford – I can think of many places that my kids would come to if I were footing the bill.

So now I’m just turned off the whole subject. I don’t even think I’ll celebrate. Oh, maybe we’ll go out to dinner to one of the swanky restaurants around here and I’ll order desert. First. But honestly, I could just keep my mouth shut and it would pass very quietly and nobody would notice. And then maybe when I have a birthday that ends in a two or a three or some other non-celebrated number, a team I’d like to see would make the World Series and I’ll have a big whoop-de-do. But for this year, I’m thinking I’ll just sit on the bench.

(The tree is coloring up nicely – did you notice?)