The 35th Birthday Weekend Part One

Friday after work, I met my parents for my postponed birthday dinner. We ate at Red Lobster which is where I always wanted to go on my birthday when I was a kid. I had not been there in a long while and had a hankering for it so that’s where we went. It was a good meal and a good time visiting with each other as well. When I was younger, they would put a foam lobster on your head and sing “Happy Birthday”, now there’s no lobster hat, just the song. Somewhere in the photo archives is a photo of me with the lobster hat; I can see it plain as day, but have no idea where it is. If I come across it, I’ll be sure to share it with you. Remember when they had the hushpuppies instead of the garlic cheese biscuits? I realize a lot of folks love those garlic cheese biscuits, but I miss the hushpuppies!

On Saturday, my parents hosted a small gathering of family and friends for my birthday. The party was to start at 5:00 and my dad and I were to do the cooking so I left my house at 1:30 with The Tide in tow to run some errands and then head over to my parents’ house. As soon as I pulled out on to the road, it started raining and I was wearing my beloved browns with the crack in the sole and it was raining quite hard and of course when I got out of the car my feet got soaked.

The first stop was to pick up my birthday cookie at the mall. Thankfully, I was able to park downstairs and out of the rain. I had a coupon from the cookie place to get six free cookies with a pre-ordered cookie cake. Since my mom can’t have chocolate, I decided to use the coupon to get some chocolate-free cookies for her. The person that waited on me had to ask the manager who said I could not use the coupon because it was for Valentine’s Day. Now, in the email were pictures of heart shaped cookie cakes, but all the email said, was six free cookies with your pre-ordered cake. I talked to the manager, who then got upset and said to the woman helping me, “Just give her some cookies!” in a harsh voice. Please ask me to do the impression for you if you see me out and about – you will not be disappointed.

The next stop was to PetSmart to get The Tide’s nails trimmed. I had brought along her rabies vaccination form with me because I had a feeling they would ask for it – they don’t always but the little voice inside my head said to be sure and grab it. It was pouring rain at this point. The Tide, who loves to go to PetSmart almost as much as she loves to go to the vet was so excited she came into the front seat, stepping on the cookie cake and ended up in my lap as I was trying to get the umbrella. We finally managed to get out of the car and inside the store where indeed they asked for the rabies vaccination… and I had left it in the car. Despite the fact it was pouring out and I told the girl I left it in the car, she told me to go get it. Needless to say, I was less than thrilled. Water was leaking into my shoe and my feet were soaked but I went and got it and when I got inside realized I had grabbed the one from 2010, not 2011. Thankfully, one of the girls working there went ahead and entered the information for me. Thank you nice girl!

I paid for The Tide’s nail trim and managed to get her back in the car and then went over to Target to pick up a prescription. I was also going to pick up some more enchilada sauce mix (we were having enchiladas for dinner) because I didn’t think my dad had picked up the right amount. Target didn’t have any enchilada sauce mix packets so I went over to the pharmacy to get my medicine. I have a discount card on file for the medicine I was picking up and the pharmacist had not run it and therefore the price was wrong. I asked them to change it and 10 minutes later when they still hadn’t managed to get corrected, I told them I would just come back later. Plus the girl who waited on me always has a bit of an attitude. In fact the one time she was polite to me, I almost fell over from shock – I think that was last month.

I went back to the car and called my dad to confirm that more enchilada sauce mix was needed and indeed it was and so the adventure continued…