Word of the Week: l’esprit d’escalier — A French word meaning “the spirit of the stairway.” Basically, the clever things you could have said that you only think of on your way out. All the cool comebacks or one-liners you wish you’d said at the time.

Yes, you read today’s post header right:  This is my 29th Birthday Recap.  Got a problem with that?

I’m actually getting to this later than planned, due to…well, you know due to…but I still wanted to fill you in on my birthday celebration—if you can call it that.

Basically, the only thing I really wanted for my birthday (or that I ever want for any special occasion, for that matter) was to be allowed to sleep in.   But of course, that didn’t happen.  Not only could I not sleep in, but I had to be up two hours earlier than usual to get ready & take the little Pekoe-a-Boo-Boo over to the vet for his ever-so-manly nip & tuck.

He was a sweetheart about it, though. (Was there ever any doubt? *g*)   He even slept through the night locked alone with me in my bedroom—to follow the doctor’s “no food or water after 8pm” edict without taking the same away from the other cats—when I’d expected him to whine & cry & keep me awake the entire time.  Oh, & in addition to being a sweetheart, he was adorable in his little orange halter & leash. Just to be safe. The gals at the vet clinic ate him up, oohing & ahhing over him. (What can I say, my boys are charmers. )

So I dropped him off practically before anything else in town was open, & had to kill five hours until my orthodontist appointment at 1pm. (Yes, I scheduled must-do junk on my birthday. And yes, I doubled up because who wants to spend more than one day running around for that sort of thing? ) Luckily, a great little breakfast dive was open, so I went & had myself a yummy, hearty trucker breakfast the likes of which I never bother to make for myself.

Then I went shopping! Don’t get excited, though; it was low-grade shopping, nothing fancy. And yet, I found lots of stuff, & had oodles of fun. (I forgot how much fun it can be to get out of the house. )

At Ollie’s, I found this great pink grapefruit liquid soaps for, like 99-cents each. Have I mentioned how much I love all things pink grapefruit? (If I could, I would drink it, breathe it, & bathe in it all at the same time. )  So I spotted one of them, & went oooh.  Unscrewed the cap & gave it a sniff. Ahhh, bliss.  (I resisted tipping the dispenser & gulping it, but only because I was afraid security cameras might have been focusing in on me.)  Yes, I decided, I would definitely be taking that home with me, as well as the other two soaps on the shelf.  I put them in my cart, then continued perusing the other items in that section.  Oh, hey, there’s another liquid soap.  Is it the same fragrance as the ones I’d already found?  Why, yes, it is.  And there’s another…& another. Turned out they had three or four rows of the stuff on three or four different shelves…& I climbed up & grabbed them all.

Overkill?  Selfishness?  Gluttony?  Perhaps. But do I look like I care? I love it, it makes me happy, & given the number of times I wash my hands on any given day, I know I’ll use it.  Eventually.  (I’m actually still working on getting through my last bulk buy of mango liquid soap. )  For right now, however, I’m just going to sit around sniffing pink grapefruit bubbles until I pass out.

I also hit Big Lots & did a little more buying in bulk. Don’t ask me why, but it was apparently my day for it. I found bunches of my favorite all-natural soda in my favorite flavors—IZZE Pink Grapefruit (duh!) & Pomegranate (another mini-obsession of mine). Yum! I swear the Universe put out all of these things it knew I would love just for me on my birthday.  (Thank you, Universe! )

Somehow I managed to stay occupied until it was time for my appointment.  (Yeah, it was a real hardship. *vbg*)  And when I got there, of course, the orthodontist declared my teeth “practically perfect in every way”—as usual.  He also told me I could cut down to wearing my retainers only three nights a week, if I wanted, but I have to tell you, it’s just easier to keep wearing them every night. If I forget once or twice, I won’t worry, but I doubt I’d be able to remember which three days I should wear them & which four I shouldn’t.

Oh, & on the way out of the office, I happened to see a container of pencils they hand out to their younger patients.  (Like the goody box at the dentist…if you get through your cleaning without biting through the dentist’s latex gloves, you can pick a prize.)  Well, in addition to my fascination with pink grapefruit et al, I am a writer & I luuuuuv office supplies.  And did I mention that some of these pencils had frogs on them & that I luuuuuv frogs?

Hey! My birthday.  Universe putting all good things in my path. This was Not. My. Fault.  And when I told the orthodonist & half dozen hygienists standing around staring at the 29-year-old kneeling in front of the children’s toy chest that it was my birthday & that I love pencils & love frogs, they told me I was welcome to take whatever I liked.  (Looking back, this may have been more out of nervousness or fear for what I might do if they said no, but since I got my froggy pencils, what do I care? )

From there, I went to lunch at a favorite restaurant & splurged on my favorite ice cream sundae. Mmmmmm. That was pretty much the one thing I’d been looking forward to for weeks leading up to my birthday…& pretty much every one of the 364 days since my last birthday…so it was worth the wait. And the waitress even put a candle in the top, but thank goodness she didn’t sing!

I should probably mention that around 11:30am, while I was wandering around on my shopping exploits, the vet’s office called to let me know my little Pekoe Boo had done very well during his surgery & was just beginning to come out of the anesthetic. He was in one of the cages in the back, of course, wrapped up in the soft Winnie the Pooh blanket I’d left with him. Awwwww.  They promised to take good care of him, but I called one last time just before they closed to be sure. He was still doing well, & they said they kept sneaking back to play with him—because of course he is the most adorable kitteh ever, even groggy from having his tiny nibblets snipped off.   I hated having to leave him there overnight, though I understand the need for it.  Apparently, the anesthetic causes vision problems, & even if an animal seems awake & alert, they really aren’t & can end up hurt before the drugs fully wear off.  Plus, the vet likes to check them one last time before sending them home.  Better safe than sorry!

After lunch, I pretty much came straight home because I knew the other kiddos would probably be hungry. And…since this was before he passed away…I wanted to get home & check on my sweet Indiana. Knowing he was sick, I didn’t like to leave him for very long.

The next morning, I was once again up bright & extremely early to collect Pekoe the very minute the veterinary clinic opened. I told them I’d be there as soon as they unlocked the doors, but I don’t think they believed me. Ha! They don’t know who they’re messing with, do they? Sure enough, I was there about three minutes before they’d told me to be, & as soon as I walked in, the ladies behind the counter started laughing.  “Well, she did say she’d be here as soon as we opened,” one of them said to the other.  (I can’t help it, I wanted my baby back! )

He was wonderful & perfect & as eager to get home as I was to have him home. I was supposed to “restrict his activity,” which is about as easy as the time the vet told me to “try not to let [one of my cats] pee” before a procedure. Yeah, I’ll get right on that.   And, of course, as soon as I brought Pekoe in the house—after he’d walked around, sniffing & investigating everything to make sure this was still his home & that I hadn’t changed or moved anything in his absence (it was so cute! )—Harley started sniffing him all over & they took off like shots, wrestling & fighting & roughhousing. My cries of, “Restricted activity! Restricted activity!” had no impact whatsoever.

But that was the day after my birthday, & I still have a couple things to share.  (Here’s a hint:  gifties! )  Since this post is getting rather long, though, I think I’ll save the rest for after Thanksgiving.  So stay tuned!  There will be pictures.

And, of course, I can’t sign off without a few of these:

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 25th, 2009 at 12:00 am and is filed under Word of the Week. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.