# 35

Well, yesterday I celebrated a big birthday, my thirty-fifth! It was a nice enough day- kind of reminded me a bit of the year that I've had- a test of endurance with some great moments thrown in to keep everything (including me) headed in the right direction. A highlight of my day was having dinner at one of my favorite restaurants, Cosmic Cafe. Tim took me because he knows I love it and it's not a place he ever really wants to go, so it was a true birthday treat for me. I dined with the men in my life...

Benjamin Felix and.....

Timothy John. It was nice.

The food at Cosmic Cafe is all vegetarian (now you know why Tim is not a fan). It has a Middle Eastern kind of feeling, even has a meditation room upstairs; however, I just go there for the food. I love their hummus and my favorite dish, Tacos Trinity. Benjamin seemed to like the hummus, too. He's willing to try pretty much anything we're willing to share with him.

Benjamin actually spent most of the meal turned around checking out the people at the table behind us. If he could have, I think he would have gone to sit with them- Mom's birthday or not!

Aside from the dinner, it was just a busy, hectic day. The end of the school year is always a challenge; ask any teacher (or school librarian). Nerves are frayed, children are rambunctious, and well, vacation is the goal. At our school, birthdays are announced each morning on the PA, so I was the recipient of many birthday wishes and a couple of "Happy Birthday" serenades. Not bad. Thanks to technology, I recieved birthday greetings from many friends and family members, via phone, text message, FB, and email. I liked thinking about how I knew each person and how they had helped me celebrate a birthday in the past. How old was I? What did we do? What was going on in my world at the time?

Now that I'm a mother, I think of birthdays differently. May 20, 1974 really was my very special day when people celebrated my arrival and showered my parents and me with love and blessings. That is a comforting thought, even if it did take place 35 years ago.