Life Unfolding

It is officially my birthday month and I'm happy to say the festivities to kick off my 30th year of existence are already rolling.

I already received a lovely letter from my hubster on February 1st. I'd like to think he did this out of pure freedom, but let's get real here folks. He knows what's coming to him if the first of the month went unacknowledged.

And for those who cannot believe that I take an entire month to celebrate, consider this: there are 52 weeks in the year and 1 day to be happy about yourself just isn't enough time to celebrate. A month seems appropriate. Once March begins, I zip my mouth and you won't hear a peep out of me for a long time.

Nick and I had a really nice weekend. It was one of those weekends you'll likely forget once you move into the week, but it was great nonetheless. What made it so great? Well, here are the reasons:

1) MINIMAL MOVEMENT. We stayed in Cleveland. NO TRAVELS.

2) GREAT COMPANY. Friday night we went to a Happy Hour with a group of 20-30 year olds that belong to the parish. Afterward, the few of us left (hard core partiers like me and Nick who rock till 11:15pm) went to a bar SASA where a friend/colleague of Nick's was playing guitar and singing. It was really great company and it is (finally) starting to feel like we are forming a great community here in Cleveland.

3) INDIE BOOK STORES. Saturday we went to an independent book store, Visible Voice, where I curled up into a chair and lost myself in the biography of poet Audre Lorde and Nick immersed himself in the history section. Our geekhood cannot be challenged.

4) CINEMA ENTERTAINMENT. We saw Gran Torino. We both really liked it a lot. Two thumbs up from Borchers/Factora-Borchers. It swings between being a deep movie about generational and racial differences to hilarious un-PC dialogue by Clint Eastwood. Highly recommended.

5) SPORTS. Sunday provided a nice 4th quarter for the Cards, but not enough to put Ben Worthlessburger -- oops -- Ben Roethlisberger away. Still very entertaining though.

6) CANNOLI. As we were exploring Little Italy, we stopped at Corbo's - a lovely bakery that has freshly made cannoli's - and since parking was a bit of a hassle, I asked Nick to drop me and drive around the block. So we did. I ran in, bought a little slice of heaven and waited in the f-f-frigid cold. The traffic was a bit heavy and my fingers were starting to go numb. When I finally spotted our car, I ran into the road, forcing Nick to stop in the dead of traffic. (Hey, I was frickin' freezing.) As my hands defrosted and the sweet bites melted on my face, I barely heard Nick mutter, "Way to illegally cross the street with a cop right in front of you."

Oh Nick - he's so lawful.

We're heading to Russia this coming weekend for Paul Cordonnier's (Nick's maternal grandfather) 80th birthday.

When Nick and I talked about what it might be like to grow old, Nick responded with, "It's gonna be great! Just talk with your friends. You don't have to give a crap what anything thinks about you...well, I'm kinda like that now, but that's how old people are. You get to be in your own world. Then you go to lunch! HA!"

You talk with your friends. You don't give a crap about what people think AND THEN YOU GO TO LUNCH.

For the umpteenth time, we debated the odds of him going deaf in his old age and while this possibility may scare some people, Nick - who is NOT like most people - says he won't mind a bit. "I'll just nod when you're talking to me and I'll get to just wander around in my own happy world." To which, I debate, the likelihood of Nick being so hearing impaired that he can't hear me is slim to none. This is true for two reasons: 1) I refuse to be married to someone who cannot listen to me when I talk and 2) In 40 years or so, when his hearing starts to fade - don't you think medical technology would have advanced so that all the elderly can hear much better than now?

We have an extremely thrilling ride of life unfolding here.