Happy Birthday to Me!

Guess who had a birthday today. Me. And not just any birthday. I had the big 5-0!

Was it a nice birthday? Yeah, as birthdays go for us older folks. Presents? Not so much. I went out to dinner with a friend last night and when I came home the family was all scurrying around and whispering and then they "surprised me" (in part because it wasn't yet my birthday yesterday) with cake, ice cream, cards, flowers and chocolates - all, I suspect, purchased just before I got home at the only store still open in town, the local Safeway. Hubby said it was really just the "warm up" to the real gifts today. Uhm, there weren't any gifts today. But I did get taken out to a very nice lunch.

More important then gifts, I was remembered. My kids all called me. Assorted friends and relatives all called me. Cards trickled in both in the mail and in my e-mail. My cell phone was ringing off the hook all day. That was nice. Presents? I'm pretty good at buying those for myself. But calling myself on the phone - just doesn't have the same warm fuzzy as it does if someone else calls me.

Tonight was less happy unfortunately. Noel and the grandkids are still here. This evening Noel, William, and two of the grandkids went off gallivanting about town. Garret stayed home with Grammy and Papa. He didn't seem to be his ordinarily busy, smiley, troublemaker self. He was sad, just wanted to lay in Papa's arms. As did a few cats. Here's Sad Gar-Bear. And a few cats.

To make a long story short, leaving out all the medical info, which might be TMI, I decided maybe a trip to the emergency room was in order. So the other kids stayed with Papa and William while Noel and I took Garret to our local ER. It's never fun to go to the ER, but at least a small town ER is a much easier and quicker event then going to a big city ER.

The poor kid was poked, prodded, examined, and poked some more. Not happy about it would be an understatement. But it turned out to be the right decision and two hours later, with three different antibiotics and two different pain medicines in him, he was already feeling a bit better by the time we got home. Tired, but better. Here's a Slightly Happy Gar-Bear. As well as a Happy Nonny. Nonny is always happy.