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Category: Birthday
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They Say It's Your Birthday
Every year on her birthday, for the past decade or so, your best friend has joked about being "over the hill". So every year, as part of your birthday gift idea, you brought a huge bouquet of colorful mylar balloons to her house, with those very words emblazoned across each balloon as a gentle reminder. You playfully punched her arm (one punch for each year she's been on the planet!). And of course you had to pinch her, too. Just one pinch, though, for extra emphasis and luck.
So this year you continue the traditional birthday gift idea. You bring the balloons. One hand is in punch position. Your fingers are in pinch mode. You make your whistling way to the elaborately decorated back yard, where the party is already in progress, and spy her off to the side, feverishly dabbing at a large spot on her dress. You figure that's the reason she's frowning.
"Happy birthday!" you shout as you approach her. Her frown turns into a grimace, complete with eye-roll. But you don't let her response deflate you. You tie the balloon bouquet to her special crepe-papered birthday chair at the head of the long picnic table and eye the cake with lip-licking approval.
She warns you to not even think about it, remembering that one year when you sliced a sliver off the far side of the cake, thinking no one would notice. She can't keep the smile out of her voice or off her face, remembering the chocolate crumbs lingering on your lips.
Minutes later, though, she doesn't laugh when the "trick" candles on this year's relight immediately upon being blown out. Or when someone asks where the fire extinguisher is. And when you eye her arm, she says, "Don't even think about it. Black and blue aren't my best colors."
You sit next to her as she tackles the stack of presents. And although she laughs at each successive gag gift, you hear her softly sigh. It's then that you're thrilled that this year you decided to forego your one usual frivolity and got her something she could actually use and that will ease her stress -- a weekend away. Not your ordinary birthday gift idea, but then again, this is no ordinary friend.
Posted on October 06, 2006. Filed under Birthday
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