Indulgences

It isn't my birthday yet but I've begun to treat myself to gifts as if my birthday were sooner than it is, or as if my birthday were more like my birth months (plural, more than just April but beginning mid-February and coasting all the way through the month of April). I need to slow down the spending. Particularly if our future consists of the major transition we're being told it's going to: I need to save money, not spend. Nevertheless pictured here is a sleeve of the ruby red blazer I happily discovered at a very great 'stuff' website (note: that is not my hand, nor my blonde hair, nor did the bracelets come included with the purchase of the blazer). And on down the page is posted the ever-lovely Tahitian Pearl necklace I found also at that same site. If I continue at the rate I'm going, purchasing item after interesting item, I will be doomed to live the life of one whose bank account is empty. Shopping is like a rash: once you itch it, it spreads.*My birthday marks a perfect time of year for getting away. Tax season is over, and spring fever and reflection has set into motion. I recall one birthday I spent in New Hampshire in a cabin with a fireplace, bottles of wine, Trivial Pursuit and Craig. Another I spent with Craig and good friends TW and his fiance, we'll call her AW because she'll be his Part 2 very soon, in Nashville hollerin and swollerin all along Music Row. I've got another one of these birthday type things coming up in about two months and we're loosely talking about turning TW and AW into yearly KB-birthday companions. TW is currently down in Ft. Lauderdale undoubtedly basking in the glow of beach tint while those of us more north of the Florida beach warm our feet and hands in wool socks and mittens, not sand. In fact, it's forecasted to snow tonight or tomorrow in Richmond. Nevertheless, we were thinking we'd fly down to the Lauderdale/Miami area to celebrate the onset of my last year as a 20-something. I can see it now: 4 beach chairs in a row, tangy margaritas being delivered on trays by attractive beach hut staff, salted rims, AW and I leafing through fashion mags or I, reading the latest book club book (insert abbreviated review of The Kite Runner: I don't like it), the sun turning our skin that perfect ripe pink hue. Hours will pass and we'll pack up as the sun sets, trudge through the sand up to our ankles to TW's apartment, unload our beach gear and shower the sand off for an evening of crab legs and lobster tail on the oceanfront patio at some ritzy dish where the wait staff wear flip flops because it's the beach and they can. Tiki torches will flicker in the subtle breeze off the water, AW and I will be in our cutest little sundresses and the boys will wear nice shorts and short sleeves. All of us will have natural sun blush the color of roses in our faces. Maybe we'll see a celebrity wandering the length of the beach walking barefoot and carrying her espadrilles. Maybe Saturday morning I'll put on the iPod and take a jog along the foggy water's edge, listening to some song seemingly not of this world like Lover, You Should've Come Over by Jeff Buckley. The salty air and the sting of my calves will inspire me to stop and jot a poem into the tiny notebook I'll have tucked in my waist band. See, I have it all planned out. TW isn't aware that this is being fantasized but he'll find out soon enough either here or when I send the memo that we'd like to do this. I'm just genuinely the luckiest girl to have friends who like to indulge in similar activities, and a boyfriend who likes to shower me with these types of memories for my birthday. TW, when you read this and do a doubletake thinking, A and I didn't agree to this! just keep in mind, we're fairly flexible in terms of schedule. It doesn't have to be the exact weekend of my 29th. But whenever we do it it will be festive. Don't forget, I'm an Aries: I celebrate my birthday for practically 3 whole months. And remember how last year A suggested I should have a cake? And I didn't? Well this year we can.