33

I like birthdays. A lot. Not just mine either..... I enjoy celebrating the birthdays of all of my nearest and dearest. A certain person I live with doesn't feel the same way. At all. He goes along with my big, extravagant plans for April 17th each year (and this year was even the planner of the bigness and extravagance), but would rather just ignore the day of his birth. The celebration of his life. He refers to May 31st as "just another day" and says that he's "another year closer to death." I usually think he's just trying to be all scrooge-y about it and that deep down inside he must secretly love his birthday and look forward to it as much as I do. This year I wasn't so sure.

Spike turned 33 this year, the number of Celtics great Larry Bird. I assumed this would be a big milestone for Spike, as he is a huge Celtics fan and has been wishing people "Happy Larry Bird Birthdays" on their 33rd for as long as I've known him. Nope. He wouldn't let me make any plans. He just wanted to stay home and relax. While this was nearly impossible for me to process, I tried to obey the birthday boy's wishes. We sat around all morning while he read the papers, but then I started to get nervous. Surely he wanted to do something! We ended up going for a ride to get out of the apartment and picked up some Chinese food on the way home. We had a lovely dinner, watched one of his favorite movies, and ate some red velvet whoopie pies. I hope he had a good day.

Of course your birthday is "just another day" if you make it that! I don't think I'll ever understand not wanting something special, something fabulous, to celebrate my existence. But that's what Spike wanted his Larry Bird Birthday to be. I did the best I could to make it a good, albeit low-key, day but I'll see if I can change the low-key part next year...his Paul Pierce Birthday!