Birthday Month Thoughts
Birthday Month celebrations, maybe it’s time to change?
I‘m sure you also have friends who declare their “birthday week,” or “birthday month.” I usually roll my eyes and wish my friends all the happiness in the world. I’m way too introverted to celebrate my birthday on that day, much less for seven or goddess help me, thirty days. The novel coronavirus changed my thinking on this a bit.
You know this quarantine/social distancing/lockdown hits hard when introverts develop a need to get out. My regular dose of #peopling, a #daydrinkin lunch once a month or so, morphed into #Zoomdrinkin. I miss seeing those four to six friends. Those little zoom images are some comfort, but, yeah, no.
Additionally, I declared “office hours,” where, when I checked in at a coffee shop, anyone was welcome to pull up a chair. Didn’t matter what I was working on, I’d put it aside for a little human interaction. Now? On the occasions when I go to a coffee shop, I’m outside and don’t-come-near-me. I look forward to that changing at some point in 2021.
Which brings me to my birthday, which was last Monday, 2-November. Between teaching out of town and elections, the boys at uni, celebrations almost always happened on weekends. Friends? Maybe when we had #daydrinkin several weeks later.
So, I resolve to change this in (hopefully) 2021. If we get to a more-open situation with covid, November becomes my “birthday month.” I want to do things in reverse, though. I want small-occasions with friends. Coffee, lunch, maybe sitting at my “thinking spot” along the lakefront. It shouldn’t be about me as much as about us. Catching up in person. Hugging more than we would normally, to make up for almost two years of this distancing nonsense. Early morning at Blue Dot. Mid-morning at a coffee place. Lunch. Stuff in the afternoons, on days when I’m teaching. Make it so, Number One.
