Birthday Blues

I turned 35 over the weekend. I had relatively low expectations set for the day. I wanted to 1-exercise, 2-use my Valentine's gift certificate for the spa, 3-eat good Thai food, and 4-go to a movie.

1-I woke up at 6:00 a.m. to go for a run. I got dressed, hydrated, geared up, walked out the front door and discovered it was snowing. Plan B was to go to the gym once the kids were all at school. Unfortunately both the carpools we're a part of had conflicts and had asked me to drive for them. This meant that I had to drop off Anna and Isaac at 8:00. The middle school has late-start on Fridays so Zachary needed to be dropped off at 9:00. The elementary school has early-release so they needed to be picked up at 1:00, and then I had to go back for Zachary at 3:00. In the few hours that I wasn't driving kids back and forth, I had to find a birthday gift for the party Isaac was invited to, look for a a replacement jacket for Noah, and drop off a forgotten lunch. No gym.

2-And no time to go to the spa.

3-Early in the week Cory did a thorough internet search for the best Thai food in Salt Lake City. He sent me various menus and locations, and we finally decided on a spot. He called the restaurant to make a reservation, but they told him they were small and didn't take reservations. They assured him they would be able to fit our whole family in on Friday evening when we showed up. To accomodate our movie time, we needed to do dinner by 6:00 and since the restaurant was downtown, Cory suggested I drive the kids over and meet him there. Thirty minutes of traffic and bickering later we parked a block away, trudged over and discovered the place was no more than a pick-up cafeteria with 6 chairs. Since 2 of them were taken, this meant either find a plan B or eat standing up. I can just imagine that whoever took Cory's call about "placing a reservation" earlier in the week must have thought this guy was totally crazy. Since we were downtown, we decided to try out "Thaifoon," an Asian chain that we'd heard good things about. Friday night downtown, meant that we waited 30 minutes before finally finding a seat and another half hour before we got any food. This began the "tears rolling down my face" portion of the evening. By this time, I was so tired and hungry and disappointed that I just couldn't hold the frustration in any longer. Anna seemed very concerned, and the boys a little uncomfortable, but finally after a trip to the bathroom and a good nose-blowing, I actually felt a little better. The food was over-priced, un-authentic, and really salty.

4-By this time, we had to hustle to have enough time to get the kids home and to bed and back to the movie theater for an 8:45 showing. We had to sacrifice Cory's plan to pick up an ice-cream birthday cake. Fortunately we made it about halfway through the opening previews of "True Grit." I have to say, I wasn't that sure about a western, but I ended up really enjoying it. It was darkly funny...(Let's just say the movie opens with a comical hanging scene.) ..just what I needed to end my own comedy of errors.

5-I finally made myself a birthday cake two days later.

I know this post comes across as whiney and I should probably have just put a cheerful face on and been more grateful, but I truly do want to remember the events of the day now that I can laugh about them.

Better luck next year.