At 1pm yesterday I found myself sitting in the school library for 90 minutes at a reading program for my son.  If you would have told a younger version of me that I would be celebrating my 40th birthday sitting in a school library, I would have laughed heartily.  But there I was.  Sitting in a quiet corner trying to squeeze in some extra work for a volunteer organization while I had the time.

I also did dishes yesterday.  Because what is the point of saying I can take the day off, and I don't have to do dishes?  The dishes I don't do today will be waiting for me tomorrow.  Only there will be twice as many.  So there isn't an "day off" from work, and dishes, and household things.

I drank a bottle of wine.  Now, normally I don't drink very often any more (due to that damn health issue I posted about).  A sip here or there, on special occasions.  But my husband said I should treat myself, and he was right.  So I treated myself to a bottle of Simi Chardonnay - probably the only California wine I like.  (I'm a fan...or I was a fan....of Australian wines, when I could drink.)  It was tasty and wonderful and everything I remembered in wine.  Especially the part where I felt like garbage at 4am because I drank entirely too much.

That is a sign of "getting older."  One drink makes you tired.  Two drinks makes you sick.

Of course, I could just lie to myself and say it was because I ate a too-big piece of cake and too much ice cream.  Yeah.  That's it.  It was the cake!

Here's the present my hubby got me:

I'm a huge Gordon Ramsey fan.  I got another book at Christmas - they're wonderful.  Great descriptions, lovely pictures.  A good cookbook is one with pictures!

Oh, and before you say "well that's not that great of a gift for a 40th birthday," don't worry.  The real gift is us getting away for a weekend to Chicago in the next few months.  (But the cookbook still rocks!)