I don’t know why, but it seems like for the past 10 years or so, my birthday has always seemed to go sour one way or another. Nothing really major, and nothing that anybody really did wrong, but it always seems like there’s something that comes up that makes the day a bummer. Well, yesterday, my 36th birthday, made up for all of that. It was just an awesome, awesome day.
Real quick, just in case you’ve never been here before, I’m a father of three and a marathon runner. My middle child, 7-year-old Jack, is severely autistic. I’m attempting to run 61 marathons in 2010 to raise money and awareness for a charity I’m a part of called Train 4 Autism. So far I’m through 55. I named my endeavor Operation Jack, after him. It’s my first attempt at making something good come from his struggles.
So as I mentioned, yesterday was my birthday. I’m 36 now, and I really can’t remember having a great birthday over the past 10-12 years. It’s nothing I’m going to blame on anybody at all, it’s just that sometimes things don’t work out and it’s always been something. Well, yesterday made up for all of that. It wasn’t a super-exciting day, like when you’re a kid and you turn 10. But it was just a great day from start to finish.
So much of it revolved around food, which for me is awesome.
One thing that didn’t revolve around food — I got a happy birthday text from my mom in the morning. She’s 58 … how 2010 is that? I was pretty impressed! I called her later in the day. Anyways, food …
Breakfast
My favorite cookies are white chocolate and macadamia nut. I love pancakes. So Tiff made me macadamia nut pancakes and put in white chocolate chips. They were amazing. But the best part is that the kids all joined me. When I say the kids, I’m including Jack. All three sat at the table with me. Jack had already eaten, but he was calm and playing with toys.
Tiff had Ben and Ava each say something the liked about me. Ava said she liked that I’m nice to her. Ben said he likes that I take care of the family. It put a smile on my face. As did the pancakes. The coffee was good. All-in-all, a nice start to the day.
Visit To The Doctor
I’ve had a cold for about the past week or so, and it’s not getting better, and I’ve had bronchitis two times in the past three years. I’m running six marathons over the next 34 days, which will continue to break down my immune system, and I’ll be spending time on airplanes immediately following those marathons. Ahhh, flying germ tubes.
So, I went to the doctor on my way into the office this morning to get myself taken care of. It was my first visit to the doctor in more than a year. I’m impressed that it took me this long to get sick. But I need to get everything taken care of before it gets worse. I just wanted a Z-Pak prescription to make sure I nip this cold in the bud.
I got there at 9 a.m. and there was nobody in there waiting. It took me more than 30 minutes to get called back. Frustrating! After getting my vitals checked, I spent another 20 minutes waiting for the doctor. I spent about three minutes with him, got a Z-Pak prescription, was advised to rest (that isn’t going to happen) and then went on my way. That took about an hour and 10 minutes — completely inefficient, but nothing to truly bring down my day.
Cool Gift At The Office
Some people at the office made a nice framed presentation of my Runner’s World article and the article that appeared on the front page of the Orange County Register back in January. It was pretty cool and made me smile.
My gift.
Lunch
I met Tiff and the kids at a place called Farrell’s. It’s an ice cream parlor and they serve burgers, salads, sandwiches and other similar things. All three kids were very well behaved and had a good time. It’s nice when we can bring Jack out without any help and he doesn’t have any problems. We don’t get a whole lot of chances to do normal things as a family of five, but this was one of those chances and it worked out. It was really nice.
Something funny happened when I ordered my lunch. I asked the waiter for a recommendation. I was looking at a couple of burgers or a reuben sandwich, but he highly recommended the Philly cheesesteak. I told him I’d take it, but I also warned him that I was going to put his advice to a serious test because I ate a cheesesteak in Philly the day before! He laughed, but stood by the sandwich.
It ended up being pretty good. No complaints, I enjoyed my lunch. They brought out some ice cream and sang a song afterwards. I had a great time, thanked the kids for being so well behaved when we went out to the parking lot, then I went back to work.
Me and my gang.
My and part of my gang.
Dinner
Benjamin’s soccer team had its end-of-the-season soccer party last night at a local Italian restaurant called Peppino’s. I got home from work, picked up Ben and Ava, and immediately took them back out. Jack was calm and bathed and stayed in with Tiff. That was OK — he’s better off being comfortable in his own environment in the evening.
We got to the function and Ben had a blast hanging out with his team, eating pizza and running around having fun. Me and Ava split a pizza (with plenty of leftovers) and got a little silly ourselves. It was a nice event, both kids had fun and were well behaved and heck, the pizza was good!
Dessert
My favorite marathon is the Boston Marathon. Everybody knows that, including my wife. For my cake, she picked up a Boston cream pie. Just because. I got a kick out of that. I’m not really picky. She picked that out because it’s something to associate with Boston, so she figured that would make me happy. Because of her reasoning, it did. And it was pretty tasty!
Jack was already in bed, but the four of us sat at the table, enjoying dessert. I had two of those two wax candles with the numbers “3” and “6”. I did some quick math in my head and told Benjamin that we should save them until the year 2037, because in that year, he’ll be turning 36 and I’ll be turning 63! That’s how I see the world, and apparently, that’s how my son sees the world, too. He did the math and got a kick out of that.
My Boston cream pie with the numbers.
Ava went to bed, and I hung out with Ben and Tiff, who were both reading. I watched K-State get a nice basketball win. Last year, Ben behaved very poorly and all but ruined my day. Last week, he told me was going to try very hard to make sure that wasn’t the case again this year. Well, he was great.
When I tucked him in, he asked me if he had behaved better than last year and I told him he was so good, it made me completely forget all about last year. I went downstairs and started writing my blog with SportsCenter on in the background, basically falling asleep at my computer.
There was nothing spectacular about the day. But it was super nice from start to finish and I spent a lot of time with the family. I couldn’t really ask for much more in a day.
Jamie Fellrath says
Sometimes the simplest days spent with the right people make all the difference, don’t they? 🙂 Happy Birthday!
Melissa Gillespie says
You got to spend your birthday with your family. That in and of itself is pretty spectacular. 🙂 Glad it was a good one.
Chris Stores says
36 is also my son’s football number! Happy (late) Birthday!!
Ben Delaney says
I can vividly recall your birthday last year. Glad to hear this one went much smoother. Will say I am bummed you went to Farrel’s this year. Not been there yet.
Anonymous says
Hey Happy Belated Birthday! Sounds like it was perfect! 🙂