posted by ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
revdorothyl at 05:14pm on 21/01/2004
revdorothyl at 05:14pm on 21/01/2004Thanks to everyone for the kind wishes. Honestly, I never realized what a difference being part of an on-line community like this could make in my life. This is the first time in several years that I've received birthday wishes and greetings from anyone outside my immediate family, and it's REALLY nice!
My birthday went as follows: Since Sundays are always work days for me, in the morning I preached a good sermon (well, pretty good -- trying to take to heart the fact that the Gospel reading from John 2:1-11 showed Jesus turning water into wine, and not vice versa, and so maybe being so angsty and miserable all the time isn't exactly the same thing as being virtuous), and then wrestled with the temptation to stop off at a movie on my way home and so delay the moment when I must face my messy apartment. In this case, virtue (and the fact that I had no more clean dishes to eat off and no more clean pans to cook in) won out, and so I spent the first half of the afternoon washing the two weeks' worth of dishes in my sink, discovering in the process that I'd also left some cooking pots to soak there from BEFORE CHRISTMAS (as Han said to Leia in the original "Star Wars": "What an interesting smell you've discovered!"). The internal dialogue upon making this discovery went something like this:
"Behold, I've created new life forms!"
"Oops, now I've destroyed them all in a flood of soap bubbles."
"Apparently I am a capricious god and not to be trifled with. Fear me!"
I then dirtied up several of my clean pots making myself a huge batch of chili to eat on through the week (I'd been eating leftovers and junk food for too long: it's very hard to cook anything nutritious when every dish and pot is dirty and the stove and sink are buried). Both my sister and my parents called to wish me well and stayed on the line for over an hour, each, which took up the rest of the afternoon and early evening.
Giving up all pretense at dignity or self-control, and being tempted beyond my ability to resist by the fact that I had several cake mixes and containers of ready-made frosting on hand, I spent a few minutes in the evening whipping up a chocolate cake, which was cooled and frosted in time for the WB Sunday night repeats of "Buffy" and "Angel". Since making a birthday cake just for myself and singing "Happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me . . ." might seem a tad pathetic or strange, let me just say that I thought I was being very mature and healthy (turning the water of a birthday spent alone into the wine of a party just for me). So there.
Not at all a bad birthday, all things considered. Thanks to everyone whose good wishes gave me the courage and permission to take care of myself that day. You all rock profoundly, people.
My birthday went as follows: Since Sundays are always work days for me, in the morning I preached a good sermon (well, pretty good -- trying to take to heart the fact that the Gospel reading from John 2:1-11 showed Jesus turning water into wine, and not vice versa, and so maybe being so angsty and miserable all the time isn't exactly the same thing as being virtuous), and then wrestled with the temptation to stop off at a movie on my way home and so delay the moment when I must face my messy apartment. In this case, virtue (and the fact that I had no more clean dishes to eat off and no more clean pans to cook in) won out, and so I spent the first half of the afternoon washing the two weeks' worth of dishes in my sink, discovering in the process that I'd also left some cooking pots to soak there from BEFORE CHRISTMAS (as Han said to Leia in the original "Star Wars": "What an interesting smell you've discovered!"). The internal dialogue upon making this discovery went something like this:
"Behold, I've created new life forms!"
"Oops, now I've destroyed them all in a flood of soap bubbles."
"Apparently I am a capricious god and not to be trifled with. Fear me!"
I then dirtied up several of my clean pots making myself a huge batch of chili to eat on through the week (I'd been eating leftovers and junk food for too long: it's very hard to cook anything nutritious when every dish and pot is dirty and the stove and sink are buried). Both my sister and my parents called to wish me well and stayed on the line for over an hour, each, which took up the rest of the afternoon and early evening.
Giving up all pretense at dignity or self-control, and being tempted beyond my ability to resist by the fact that I had several cake mixes and containers of ready-made frosting on hand, I spent a few minutes in the evening whipping up a chocolate cake, which was cooled and frosted in time for the WB Sunday night repeats of "Buffy" and "Angel". Since making a birthday cake just for myself and singing "Happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me . . ." might seem a tad pathetic or strange, let me just say that I thought I was being very mature and healthy (turning the water of a birthday spent alone into the wine of a party just for me). So there.
Not at all a bad birthday, all things considered. Thanks to everyone whose good wishes gave me the courage and permission to take care of myself that day. You all rock profoundly, people.
accomplished
There are no comments on this entry.