the ocean

I turned 45 yesterday. In case there was any doubt on the matter, Ian hired two women to come and set up giant balloons that said "45" in our house. It took them half an hour and they argued vigorously in Spanish the entire time. So that was definitely a good value.

We had a few people over last night to commemorate the occasion. Ian made all the appetizers I like and we ordered an excessive amount of Taco Bell. I still can't drink, so that was different, but it turns out that a lot of what I thought was being drunk was just drawing on other people's energies like a vampire. Not a sexy teen vampire, unfortunately, but that's an unfortunately rare breed.

There was a bit of excitement when flaming logs fell out of our fireplace into the living room not once but twice during the evening. It turns out the previous owners had put the wood rack into the fireplace backwards, so the its burning contents were being propelled outward rather than held back securely. Sort of a design flaw, I think. But we returned the flames to their proper home and I managed to make it through the whole evening without getting down on my hands and knees to clean up the black marks, as I was dying to do. 

So that, I'd say, was a successful birthday. Here's to continuing to be alive.