Digressions: My Life in 500 Words or Less

Last week I hit a milestone. I turned 60.

Under other circumstances the milestone would have been observed in a much different way. But we are living in a world devastated by a pandemic, and Rebecca and I had to shift our plans.

Though life is easing open a bit, it is still not the world in which I celebrated my 59th birthday. Facemask and hand sanitizer are the norm on the rare occasion I venture out in public. And the occasion truly is rare. In fact I have not been in a face-to-face public setting more than two or three times in the past three months.

To be clear, this is not a complaint about self-isolating or taking the necessary precautions to be safe to others and ourselves. This is not a complaint about making changes because of the pandemic.

To the contrary. This is about adapting.

So my birthday looked different from those in the past.

For most of my birthdays I’ve celebrated by having dinner with family and with parties of some sort or another. In the past several years, my sweetie, Rebecca, has organized parties at home with friends, complete with food, drink and, of course, karaoke.

And there is always birthday cake.

I have to have birthday cake.

But since COVID-19 was part of the equation, we were still self-isolating, and that meant no party with friends at our house or dinner with family. I missed that, but I’d rather my friends and family be safe and healthy. And Rebecca made sure to make my day as special as possible.

I took the day off from writing work and guitar practice. I slept in a little after Rebecca left for work. She called and texted throughout the day to instruct me to go look at various locations in the house where I would find a gift. Porters and stouts. My favorite types of beer.

And not just any porters and stouts. Porters and stouts I had not tried before.

I enjoyed the restful day, even taking a stay-in-the-car drive a couple of blocks to play a little Pokemon Go. The peacefulness of the day was enhanced by a flood of birthday wishes on social media, and when Rebecca came home, she brought dinner. We enjoyed on our living room floor a picnic-style buffet of food from Mi Jalisco.

And later on, we enjoyed some karaoke.

Yep. As pandemic birthdays go, this one was pretty good.

Knowing my family and friends were safe was a great gift. And having Rebecca by my side through another milestone regardless of how it was commemorated filled my heart with happiness.

Oh, and there was birthday cake.

I have to have birthday cake.