Sixty-three

Here's my annual birthday selfie. I turned 63 yesterday!

Where did all those years go?

I started off my birthday yesterday by sleeping late. I was able to do that because, finally, I didn't have to get up and go to school! Retirement is awesome that way! However, I almost missed a call from my friend Karen, because I slept through the Walking Dead ringtone on my cell phone, thinking I was dreaming about the Walking Dead, and only realized at the end that someone was calling me!

September 1, 2017: Lunch at China Wok with my friends Megan and Karen.

When I called Karen back, she said she wanted to celebrate with me by going out to lunch, along with another friend, Megan. I was up for that! I decided to skip the healthy diet for the day--it was my birthday, after all--and we went out to my favorite Chinese restaurant, China Wok. It's not a place I can go when I'm dieting because there's very little there that's low-carb. Even relatively healthy dishes like chicken and broccoli tend to have starchy thickeners. So it was fun to splurge and eat there for the first time in months.

It was so much fun, in fact, being with friends and sharing stories and laughing uproariously, that a little lady who'd been eating at a nearby table came over to us as she was leaving and said, "I wanted you ladies to know how much I enjoyed your lunch!" And she meant it!

A sweet gift from Karen.

Although the gift of their time and friendship was more than enough for me, Karen brought in a big red bag and presented it to me during lunch. It was a massaging bath pillow, which she said was to help me unwind and be inspired as I continue working on my novel. How sweet is that?

Thoughtful gifts from another good friend, Wyndie.

Later that afternoon, back at home, my friend Wyndie dropped by with a dozen pink roses and some sugar-free candy. She knows I'm always trying to drop some poundage! We visited for more than an hour and made a lunch "date" for Wednesday. There's always so much to talk about! For instance, three weeks ago Wyndie became a first-time grandma to a beautiful new granddaughter, Jemma Lynn.

Next splurge: a shredded beef chimichanga at El Rancho.

Come evening, it was time to head to El Rancho for the Carter family birthday tradition. We've been doing this for decades. When you eat at this restaurant on your birthday, the staff comes out and puts a sombrero on your head, then sings happy birthday as they serve you a free bowl of deep-fried ice cream in a cinnamon-sprinkled tortilla bowl.. And they take your picture to post on their Facebook page.

The traditional birthday-sombrero and deep-fried ice cream photo.

No one ever eats their whole birthday ball of encrusted ice cream, of course. It comes with multiple spoons, and the bowl is passed around until everyone gets a taste and the bowl is empty. This time, we ate our dessert with dinner rather than after, because our server brought it out to us with unusual speed. We had to eat it before we finished dinner so it wouldn't melt!

As always, my family and my friends made me feel special on my big day (as well as before; thank you, Debbie!). It almost makes it worth being a whole year older! And it isn't over yet. We still have my birthday party with my children at Sunday dinner to look forward to. But that will be a story for another day...

Mark, Mary, Chris, and Sarah celebrate together at El Rancho.

Sadly, Dylan and Jake weren't able to join us this year. But next year...!