Suzy Says

Company’s gone, birthday over, things pretty much back to normal, other than there are so many cards and flowers around the house that it looks like someone just died instead of someone being born a really long time ago.

Even though A.A. Milne’s Eeyore observed with some truth, “What’s a birthday? Here today, gone tomorrow”, mine seems to be more in the nature of Hanukah, and consisting of days of gift-getting. Among the offerings: a huge basket of flowers (including some of my favorites: Stargazer lilies, roses, peonies) and bath goodies from my older sis and her family in England; deep purple amethyst earrings; a fabulous pearl necklace; books galore; CD’s, including the new Elvis Costello and Neil Young. Not to mention champagne and French truffles so rich and deeply chocolate that they are probably illegal in this country.

When I got to work today, there was a gorgeous soapstone vase engraved with cats and filled with lilies, orchids, and other fabulous exotica, all for the fabulously exotic Me. And when I got home, there were no fewer than three delivery slips, meaning I will go to the post office tomorrow and get still more presents! You just have to love getting presents from all over the world. And that doesn’t even count all the e-mails and blog valentines, one of which in particular was so sweet it almost made me cry.

Turning 40 was pretty emotional for me. Partly because it was the first birthday without my father, partly because one’s youth is rapidly disappearing if not entirely gone, and considering how fast the first 40 years went, the next will be at Concorde speed. So these are sobering thoughts. But I’m also very touched by all the people who took the time to tell me they care, and are thinking about me. Right back atcha.

Happy 40th birthday to me!

The good news: we finally got our iMac back, after a nearly 6 week, all-expenses paid vacation. So far, it has managed to refrain from the swooning tendencies and black despair that sent it to the spa to begin with. Let’s hope it stays all Doris Day bright and happy.

One thing that’s weird, though (you knew there had to be something). When I checked my e-mail on it, there were some messages (including a charming one from Jennifer, sent in the middle of May) that I hadn’t received when using the iBook, and others which I read on the iBook didn’t appear at all on the iMac. So if you e-mailed me during my iMac’s absence and have been wondering why the hell I haven’t gotten back to you, that’s why. So send me your complaints, compliments, and congratulations on starting my fourth decade tomorrow again in case I missed you.

I never make dinner on Fridays. Instead, we get pizza or other delicacies from the ever-reliable Victor’s, or something like that. After I got my eyebrows waxed yesterday, I stopped in at Tai Chi to get some Chinese food. I’m not really a big Chinese food fan — I wouldn’t cry if I were told I could never eat it again — but I do love General Chu’s chicken. I have also seen it as Cho, Zhou, Zsu, and other exotic spellings, and have no idea who he was. Maybe General Chu’s chicken just means chicken in general. Anyway, Tai Chi makes a fabulous version, spicy and brown sugary and garlicky.

With the order came fortune cookies. I have always found them to be the most fun of all Chinese food, since I can never resist reading my horoscope or asking the Magic Eight Ball questions. It’s fun to think that these things can predict the future, but if they really could, just imagine how horrifying that would be. But I have noticed lately that fortune cookies don’t give you a fortune anymore, they give you proverbs. Proverb cookies are significantly less fun.

So instead of having something like, “Your tears will soon become smiles” or even, “You will meet a tall, dark stranger” or something like that, the ones we got had a rather nagging tone to them: “Idleness is the holiday of fools” (really fun for someone who is unemployed to get that one) and “Behind an able man, there are always other able men.” I thought it was bad enough being told to behave at the movies by those ads they run before trailers, without being told off by a cookie. Is the world such a rude place that we have to get etiquette tips from inanimate objects?