I Suck At Celebrating My Birthday

today is a special day for me. in fact, today happens to be a special day for a bunch of people i know. the day is special to my friend and former coworker (kristen); the day is special to my friend's (hot amy) father; and the day is special to my father. all of us happen to share today as our birthday. happy birthday kristen, hot amy's father, and dad!

too bad i suck at celebrating my birthday. generally speaking, a person's birthday is supposed to be "their" day. for the most part, i have always stuck by that rule. i usually take the day off of work and basically spend the entire day having fun... or at least what i consider fun. in the past, i did things like watch the "lord of the rings" trilogy in the theaters with my friends. i sometimes spent the day playing playstation. (for anyone curious, there was one time where i did not take my birthday off from work... and it was not fun at all... so ever since then, i made sure i took off my birthday from work.)

this year, however, it was tough to get excited about... or even celebrate my birthday. my son (braden) was born extremely premature this year. his original due date was january 2, 2009. braden was born three months ago in september... and unfortunately, he did not survive shortly thereafter. if i could use a birthday wish, it would be to change the past in such a way so that braden could survive and have a full healthy life for himself. i'm sure if my dad could also use a birthday wish, he would have wished the same thing for his first grandson. sadly, neither my dad nor i cannot change the past. i can only hope to use my birthday wish today for good fortune in the upcoming future.

needless to say, today really has not been a great day. adding to the lackluster day is the snow storm that has blanketed the state of massachusetts. with the snow fall, i spent part of today shoveling. luckily, i have a snow blower so the shoveling did not take as long. aside from that, i spent most of the day cooped up in the house watching a couple of movies... wrapping a couple of christmas presents... all fun things... i know.

i did, however, get to go to the abington alehouse for lunch before the snow storm. apparently, after running a few errands... (visting braden being one of them) karen and i arrived at the abington alehouse quite early and were the second ones seated there. as usual the food was delicious at the abington alehouse. for anyone curious, the abington alehouse provides a free meal to people on their date of birth. birthday celebrants even receive a little pudding dessert with oreos and whipped cream. (cue rachael ray's "yum-o" sound.)

i had a sirloin at the abington alehouse. in conjunction with the steak, it was the first time in a long while where i used a1 steak sauce. as weird as it sounds, using a1 steak sauce reminded me of my childhood. my father, when i was growing up, used a1 steak sauce a lot... and naturally i did as well with steak. it was a nice memory to have today.

anyway, in addition to the great lunch at the abington alehouse, one of the other great things about today was the phone call i received from my favorite sister-in-law (janine). janine had my niece (kaleigh) and nephew (pj) sing happy birthday to me on the phone. it was very nice.

that's about all the excitement today. well... there was something else that came up today which makes me think that i am cursed and will never catch a break ever again. my neighbor is having a new septic system installed and there seems to be a discrepancy between property lines. needless to say, the contractor is claiming that my neighbor's property actually extends onto my property where my shed currently is located (and has been there even before i purchased the house). thus, the contractor is wondering if i could move the shed.

lately, there always seems to be something going wrong. for once, i would like things to go my way. you would think that on my day of birth, that i could just catch a break for once. the snow storm... the property line discrepancy... if i could yell "calgon, take me away"... i would.