Hoo boy.
This was one hell of a weekend, that's for sure.
So. As planned, on Saturday (read: my birthday) we got off work and went to bed sometime around 2AM after getting home from work. I was exhausted on Friday night; it wasn't because we'd been busy (compared to most Fridays at work it was really tame, to be honest with you), but because I just wanted to get out of there, I hadn't slept well the night before, and because I really wanted my extended weekend to start.
"I can't wait to give you your presents," Daisy told me in the car on the way home.
"Presents? Ohhh, presents," I said. I was genuinely surprised.
Look, I lived alone for a long time, folks. I was functionally a hermit for several years, only leaving the house to teach or take my classes, and to go two miles away to the local Walmart before turning the Monte Carlo around and coming home again. Therefore, the concept of getting birthday presents from people -- even my wife -- was something I didn't even really think of. Normal people get and give birthday presents, riiiiight. I'd completely forgotten about it and the thought never even crossed my mind, truly. I don't know what that says about me as a person or about my personality and self-esteem levels right now.
Of course, part of it was probably that I was just tired, too.
When I woke up on Saturday morning, again, it was really just another day for me. I let Daisy sleep because I knew she needed it, and was told that we didn't really have a set schedule except for dinner at 5:30. I woke Daisy around noon, as she told me she wanted to be awake and spend as much of my birthday with me as possible, and she called the parents at some point while I was on the porch smoking.
Here's where everything gets a little hectic -- Daisy informed me that her other sister and our brother-in-law, who lives a few hours north of here and has four kids -- didn't know it was my birthday and they wanted to come down a day early to celebrate it with me. I mean, since they'd be here on Sunday anyway, another night wasn't a big deal.
I was fine with this, of course -- the more the merrier, and obviously I love everyone in the family and couldn't wait to see and spend time with the kids. The kids (all six of them) have become a highlight of our big family gatherings, especially as they're getting older and thus are more fun to talk to, play with, and interact with. I'm a huge fan of babies under 1, and I love kids old enough to talk to and have conversations with -- it's that grey area in-between where most of the time I'll get frustrated with being around children or don't know how to respond/interact with them because they speak gibberish, run around screaming, or don't listen. I will also say that for the most part, our nieces and nephews are very sane, well-behaved children. This is because (obviously) not only have I gotten used to being around them a lot in the two and a half years that Daisy and I have been together, but because they've gotten older in that time as well. Kids mature, kids grow up, kids settle down somewhat. But, honestly, it's probably that I'm a little more at ease and more used to being around children all the time now.
So, anyway, instead of setting a table for seven (the parents, me, Daisy, and Daisy's sister/her two boys), we were setting a table -- and making a dinner for -- thirteen people. Again, would've been fourteen had our other brother-in-law been able to come to town for our family get-togethers this weekend. And because the rest of them were coming in early, we were doing this two days in a row.
"So does that mean we're going to do everything today and just get it all done and out of the way?" I asked Daisy, since I didn't know what our overall plans were.
"No, we're doing your birthday dinner tonight and then we're going back over tomorrow for the family Christmas," she replied.
Okay. Whatever works. It's the holidays, we don't see the family much as both sets of them live waaaaay out of town, and I was off work for three days in a row. I really didn't mind anything as I'm a go-with-the-flow sort of person when it comes to family stuff most of the time (mainly because I'm going to be along for the ride for most of it anyhow). The entire family hasn't been together all in one place since our wedding back in May, so even having most of them here in Omaha is a rather big event that only tends to happen, at most, twice a year or so. I mean, us adults work or have kids or both, drive times are long for everyone but us, sleeping and dietary/allergy arrangements in the house have to be made when everyone's here, etc etc. It's a big deal, a big production.
So we had my birthday dinner -- poutine -- with everyone there. I got several more presents from the family as well as a few cards. The presents were very nice; a few tin signs to hang on the wall, signs which were relief-stamped and painted with old comic book covers from the 30s through the 60s, as well as a bag of the new Starbucks Christmas blend coffee (which I have yet to grind and drink, actually). It was a nice night, with a nice dinner -- supplemented by the fact that Dad opened a big bottle of champagne that I'm sure I drank about half of.
Daisy's gifts were incredibly nerdy and took the cake, though -- and there's a backstory to them. Well over a month ago (I'm guessing long before Thanksgiving, even) I showed her a link to one of ThinkGeek's newest products, their Star Trek hoodies. I just thought they were neat, and didn't think much else of it -- in fact, I promptly forgot about it. Little did I know that even before I'd shown her the hoodie, she'd already ordered it for me in command red, in my size, and threw in the combadge as well. The result? Well...
Possibly the nerdiest birthday present I've ever received. Now I feel clothed enough to attend conventions without getting the stinkeye.
Ahem. She also got me a tabletop card game we'd been meaning to get for a long time called Dominion, which we played with our sister and brother-in-law for more than an hour that night (until we were so tired we needed to go home). When we actually got home I wasn't awake too long before I promptly passed out until Sunday morning.
How did Sunday go? Well, that's a story for the next post.
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