My birthday was a few weeks ago. Several months before that, I naively thought the coronavirus would be all gone and things would be back to normal by the summer.
Over the past few months, I’ve learned to adapt to the new normal. I am grateful that things have started to open back up and that I had more birthday options than I would have had in the restrictive earlier days of the pandemic.
I tried to keep things simple this year — a quiet birthday with a few special treats. It was tough not being able to travel anywhere this time. Besides, the travel restrictions posed on every place I wanted to visit never felt worth the headache. It just didn’t feel right this time.
Nevertheless, my three-day bday weekend started with a mini staycation a few miles away from home. I really wanted to sail out on the Chesapeake so I picked a hotel with boat sailing options.
A birthday breakfast and a facial later, I was out to sea twirling to the tunes of Watermelon Sugar by by Harry Styles.
The song echoed over the river and I still cannot describe the bliss I felt, but whenever I hear the song, the moment visits me again…
I balanced my wine glass–which had been filled with beer because I forgot to bring a bottle of wine–on the rocky boat, spilling a little here and there. The clouds grew darker while I danced in the eye of the storm to one birthday song after the other. The blissful moment felt like an eternity though it must have been only a short while before the rain started to pour down on us. We sped back to shore drenched in part rain part bliss. I thank God we made it safely even though I craved more time out on the water.
A smooshed birthday cake (It fell while I was climbing out of the boat) and a tasty crabcake dinner later, I was lodged back into my hotel bopping my head to off-tune singing of the happy birthday song. Then I closed my eyes, puffed up air into my mouth, and blew out my candles.