Shh.

I’m an introvert.  It took me a long time to admit that.  Well, that and it doesn’t really go with being manic (which, totally under control, thanks).  So after years of being “bubbly”, “perky” and “smiley” kill me now I’ve evolved into someone who laughs, is happy, smiles and who needs a minute, please.

This week has zapped every last ounce of energy I have.  Being that it’s only Tuesday, I’m afraid the rest of the week is going to be a little long and/or deadly.  My wife deserves my eternal gratitude (or at least tonight’s gratitude) for letting me come home, head to the basement and quietly sit under a blanket while the tv hummed.  You wish you were married to me, I know.

Those 30 minutes of quiet made a tremendous difference in my attitude.  My headache faded (more on acupuncture coming later), my mind relaxed, my shoulders loosened up and inside I folded in on myself.  That sounds a little like crumpling but it was more like being a morning glory, tucking away the blues and purples at night and folding wide open in the sun.  Today was about the tucking.  Maybe also tomorrow and the next day and the next and…

Check the Calendar

It’s November.  No surprise to you dear reader, but you probably haven’t got the same birthday rules my family has.

You read correctly, birthday rules.  Rules! 

No one in the family produces babies at anytime other than Sept 28 – Oct 5, November 20 & 21 and April 24 – 29.  You might think I’m kidding, but even the cousins and the married-ins conform to the strict birthday date limitations.  I once thought I’d marry a woman with a birthday in January.  As you can imagine, it didn’t work out.  Not least of all because of her non-conformist birthday (or was it in February?  That also might be why it didn’t work out…)  D. of course, has an appropriate date, as does my sister’s husband.  His birthday is on my birthday, followed immediately after by my mother’s birthday – shared with my sister and one second cousin.  Lost yet?  Never-mind, it’s the rules that are important.

• Rules
  Everyone shall have his/her own birthday cake/pie, no matter how many cakes are produced for one day.  One year, there was a pecan pie, a refrigerator cake, an angel food and a stack of celebratory cookies.  No, we aren’t a slender group, us November borns.
• No other holiday shall adversely affect celebrations.  Therefore, Easter treats and Thanksgiving abundance shall carry on, unaffected by consumption of cakes/pies produced in Rule 1.
• No one shall discuss, breathe mention of, circulate a gift list for or otherwise think of any November birthdays before the September/October birthdays have passed.  You guessed it.  This is the big one. 

As you can imagine, as a little girl, my Sept. birthday sister sulked, in the way a non-twin might do in the face of twin birthdays with exponentially more stuff.  Her sulking generated the Rule.  And so, us Novembers were left only two short months to anticipate while she basked in the balmy, easy-going months between April and September.  Oh that lucky girl.  As adults, we still stick to the rule (perish the thought that a September born should suffer for a pair of November borns.)  But as adults, we sometimes forget to get excited.  And believe me, that results in sub-par gifting.  So join me in my enthusiasm for the best holiday of the year – the end of the ban on birthday discussions! 

Bonus points if you, too, share a birthday.