birthday week

In my family we've always celebrated Birthday Month because most of us were born in November. My sister started the idea and she was the one most invested in it. I used to like to talk about birthday month but I never expected (and never got) a month long celebration.

Of course last year my birthday was completely forgotten as Taz was in the hospital and, actually, my birthday was the day I had to make some hard, horrific decisions. 

So you can imagine that I've not been much in the mood for celebrating my birthday this year, it's now (and forever) tied to things I don't want to remember...even though I can't help it.

But friends were urging me to celebrate and after much waffling back and forth I decided that if I was going to celebrate a little, I was going to celebrate a LOT.

And so, this is BIRTHDAY WEEK!

It started small - a friend asked if I wanted to do anything on my actual birthday and I originally said no. Then another friend asked if I wanted to come over for dinner the night before. I was in a better frame of mind at that time so I said yes. Then the first friend was rather confused why I would do something with someone else and not her so I ended up having something to do on 2 nights this week. 

I have family coming into town for the weekend so suddenly I had plans on Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday so it seemed silly not to extend the celebration to the whole week.

Yesterday (Sunday) was the kick off. I was by myself all weekend but I didn't think it was healthy to sit around and think too much (I actually took myself to a movie Friday night since that had been such a hard day and I knew I needed to get out of the house after work) so I decided to spend Sunday visiting one of my favorite Florida towns.

First stop was a favorite French cafe. They just installed lots of outdoor seating, very Parisian, but it was only in the '50s on Sunday which is VERY cold for Florida, so I definitely felt better in the cozy interior. They had it all decorated for Christmas and were playing French Christmas songs interspersed with Dean Martin and Michael Buble. Normally I do not like too much Christmas before Thanksgiving but yesterday it felt just right.

 Everything looked amazing, I was very tempted by a lemon tart.

But then my eyes saw the croissants and pies. Oh, so many choices. It was hard to stick to one thing.

Just then the front door opened letting in a huge gust of chilly wind and I knew what I had to order - onion soup!

And continuing on that theme I topped it off with a hot chocolate. Look at that whipped cream! It was heavenly.

I seriously love that cafe. Taz and I watched it being built a couple of summers ago and visited many times. It was either our first stop when hitting town or a great place to have dessert after having dinner at the Singaporean restaurant in town...which is gone now. 

The food is awesome, the decor is beyond charming, the little library in the back is the perfect place to spend an afternoon but the thing I love the most is the bathroom.

Yep, you heard me right - I love their ladies room. Which is an unusual thing to love, right? But they have a mirror in the bathroom that is pure magic. I never look tired or old in that mirror, no wrinkles or bags under my eyes.  I always make a trip to the ladies room there, even if I don't really have to go!

After filling up, I went next door to my favorite shop in the world. It's one of those vintage emporiums that rents out space to many vendors. 

You never know what you're going to find there. This time I found a giant seahorse. Actually, it was a pair of giant seahorses. Aren't they adorable? I'm sure I need them but I'm not exactly sure where I would put them so I let them stay in the store this time.

I did, however, decide that a necklace needed to come home with me. I can't afford anything, I shouldn't have spent the money (even though it wasn't that much) but gosh darn it, it's my birthday and nobody else is around to buy it for me.

I know, it looks like a rosary and I'm not even Catholic, but I used to have a collection of ornate and/or rustic crosses (I still have it but it's in storage in California and I'll probably never see it again) so maybe this is the start of a new collection. It makes a cool necklace.

After all that fun I was ready to go back home and hug Charlie...and take a nap. I'm still pretty worn out at the end of the each day. I look forward to the day when this arm thing and all the pain is a distant memory and I feel 100%.

But, not a bad start to BIRTHDAY WEEK!