The Aerie

Happy Birthday... to Me?

Well, what a nice surprise! I returned home from work today a tad early, and caught my wife setting off to Target. This would be a completely non-notable event, except that she acted so abashed and surprised.

Something was up.

I feigned ignorance (not a difficult task since I had no idea what she was up to) and when she returned home we all had a nice family dinner.

Afterwards as I was starting to doze off in my armchair in the living room, she told the kids to "get your stuff." The next thing I know they were singing "Happy Birthday" and giving me presents! This was very kind, especially considering that my birthday was almost a month ago.

Now, through no fault of anybody's, my actual birthday was, at least in my wife's view, less than optimal. I didn't really have any problem with it: after all, I spent it with my family in Germany.

Granted, most of that day was spent driving from Garmisch-Partenkirchen back to Neumarkt. And, granted, the majority of that trip was spent in stop-and-go traffic on the autobahn, riding the clutch in first gear from the southern edge of Munich all the way to the town of Pfaffenhoffen nearly 40 miles to the north. Yes, that's right: I drove 40 miles in first gear in a stick-shift minivan on my birthday.

So, according to my wife, not an ideal one.

There was that stretch where we couldn't find a bathroom. Then we finally found a blue [P] parking sign and pulled off there, bladders straining, only to discover that while there was a large parking lot for weary drivers to rest, there was not so much as a porta-potty in the place. I ended up finding a clump of bushes and picking up a nasty nettle sting - on my hand, fortunately.

Being one of those pull-off and pull-back-on parking areas, we attended to these matters and merged onto the freeway at the other end at almost the same point in the traffic. That's how slow the autobahn was moving.

So, okay, my birthday hadn't been ideal. Still, I had really not felt badly about it. I was in Europe for the whole bloody month of August, I should complain because I spent my birthday in first gear? Not hardly!

Regardless, my family felt badly that my birthday had included 40 miles of stop and go traffic, nettle stings, and being pushed around by old German women in gas stations, and so tonight they gave me presents.

It was very nice, and my presents were very good. My spouse gave me a "hot stone massage" coupon for the local spa where I'd sent her for Mother's Day. Or our anniversary. One or the other. And I got a bar of Dove dark chocolate. My son got me a copy of "Blade Runner" on DVD, which made me very excited because he hasn't seen it yet, so we can watch it together. And I got a box of Raisinets, jumbo size! And my daughter gave me a copy of "V for Vendetta" on DVD, which includes a radical 3-D cover, AND the comic book version of the movie in small form, AND a disk of special features. And I got a bar of organic Dark Chocolate. All the chocolate was from my youngest.

So very, very nice. Very considerate and surprising.

We watched the extras on the "V" DVD - a little bit disappointing: the extras disk seems a tad small, and the main DVD lacks either commentary tracks (which I enjoy) or deleted scenes (likewise). Nevertheless, I'm pleased ot have it and glad my daughter got it for me. I just wonder if they're going to do that thing where they sell the DVDs, then in six months or a year come out with the "Extended DVD" or "Special Edition" and then sell them all over again, this time with outtakes and commentaries.

We shall see I guess.

And now, although it's only 10:00 p.m., I'm off to bed - a drowsy victim of the success of my own schedule. Tomorrow there is much to do.

Posted by Albatross at September 8, 2006 9:40 PM | TrackBack