the Big Birthday Post

yep, it’s my birthday.

well, for another hour and ten minutes, anyway.

heaps of thanks to all who posted birthday greetings or sent me cards (paper or electronic) – all were very much appreciated! it was nice to come home to dancing celery, espanish celebrations and solidarity amongst those of us who prefer our toronto summers remain below 25C.

anyhoo...

so. buffalo. mom and i were there for two days, and what a pair of days it was:

* we ate at panera twice (a light dinner and dessert on friday, and breakfast this morning).

* we ate at the cheesecake factory yesterday, where we each had the lunch-size (which was still GIGANTIC) rigatoni with roasted-tomato sauce...and i had one of the fancy-schmancy blended-ice beverages as a pre-birthday treat.

* we had a very late lunch – of blueberry pancakes (me) and a raspberry belgian waffle (mom) – at the original pancake house on friday afternoon...the place is open until 9pm, and we reasoned that it would be much easier having “breakfast” at 2:45pm than trying to get a table on saturday or sunday morning. the place was deserted, and our meal was FABULOUS! and cheap!

* we had lunch at ted’s hot dogs, one of our favourite buffalo eateries and home of the best hot dogs i’ve ever had, this afternoon...and i snagged two of their (temporary) logo tats. :-D

* i treated mom to a cold stone creamery experience, where we each enjoyed one of their deeeeeelicious signature creations (she had the “coffee lovers only” and i opted for the “founder’s favorite"). so very very good.

* we stayed at the marriott amherst as a “treat” to ourselves. we learned that, in future, we will not “treat” ourselves to the treat-free marriott with its inflated prices and, instead, will return to the very reasonably priced, very clean and very quiet red roof inn that’s right next door. it’s literally 30 feet away and about half the price for twice the experience. a shortlist of our stay:

1) we asked for as quiet a room as possible, and were placed three doors down the hall from several banquet rooms. on the first floor. in a wheelchair accessible room...which meant no counters at all in the bathroom (um, where are we supposed to put stuff? on the bed??), no hooks (um, where are we supposed to hang stuff? on the doorknob? oh wait, there IS no doorknob, because the room had...), no doorknob (pocket doors that, given their weight, must have been made of three inches of steel painted to look like wood) and no kleenex. there were, however, thick, down duvets on the beds...handy for those brisk summer days when the temperatures hover around 80F. ?!

2) further to the lack of quiet, there was a steady stream of foot traffic in and out of the building, right past our door, for much of friday night. last night, the banquet halls were filled with boisterous groups having meetings and get-togethers. when, at 11:15pm, the party was still going on in the hall and we could hear it very clearly over the sound of our TV, i called the front desk and asked when the festivities were scheduled to end, because the noise in our quiet room was very loud. “oh, it was supposed to end at 11,” said the girl at the front desk. they didn’t clear out until after 11:30pm...which is fine and good and to be expected on a saturday night, but not when one has specifically asked for quiet.

3) because we’re environmentally conscious folks and take green matters seriously, we don’t require fresh towels and bed linens more than once a week. so, since we were only staying two nights, we didn’t need or want fresh towels or bed linens. i called the front desk on friday evening and asked if it would be possible to decline housekeeping services for saturday, explaining the reasons – there would be nothing for the housekeeping staff to do, and we were quite happy to use the same towels for another day. “no problem,” said the woman on the other end of the guest-services phone. “i’ll let them know not to do your room tomorrow.” great! do i even need to tell you that mom and i returned to our room last night to see that housekeeping had been there, and had replaced all the towels, and had taken the $2 that i’d left, sort of obscured from view deep in the room, as a test to see if they’d been in there? ‘cause they had, and they did and they did. again, it’s not so much the new towels that peeved me, but the complete disregard for my preference AND the previous night’s promise. whatever.

4) both mornings, just before 8am, some kind of alien generator started up somewhere within the building walls. it was loud, and sounded a bit like a helicopter awaiting lift-off outside our window. (i checked. there was no helicopter outside our window. nor a lawnmower. nor a harley. we have no idea where the thudding, vibrating noise came from or what might have been causing it.)

5) upon checkout, the front-desk clerk cheerfully asked me, “so, how was everything with your stay?!” i replied, “to be honest, it was kind of disappointing.” i told her all of the above, and she just stared at me with a smile stuck on her face. she apologized for the room location, and said she thinks we were placed in our room because that was the only area of the hotel not housing groups of visitors for the weekend. “yeah, but the meeting rooms hosted them,” i pointed out. she agreed, sort of shrugged her shoulders in an “oh well, can’t really do anything about it now...” way and then handed me my receipt. allow me to reiterate that our subsequent stays in buffalo will take place at the red roof inn.

* this morning, we went to mass. mom goes every sunday, even when away from home, so i went with her. all was going well until the girl standing in the pew behind me sneezed what can only be described as an EXPLOSIVE sneeze that literally sprayed the back of my upper right arm with heaven knows what. it was like something out of punk’d and it was grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrosssssssssssssssssss. she hadn’t covered her mouth, not even a little, and so everything was unleashed in a big, messy torrent right behind me. i excused myself, went to the restroom to wipe myself off and to try not to gag, then returned to my seat to see that the “spray” (read: runny snot...I AM NOT JOKING) was still on the bench. OMG. i nearly ran out. i calmly began searching through my bag to see if i had any kleenex or napkins or anything to cover the offending mucous. when mom noticed the commotion, she quietly asked what was going on. i explained. she immediately handed me a kleenex and then we both slid our bums about three feet away from where we’d been sitting and, more importantly, out of the line of fire. ewwwwwwwwwwwww.

* we shopped. a lot. we bought a trunk full of stuff and probably could have found more, but we reined in our urge to splurge. i managed to get everything on my list, plus a bunch of stuff i only remembered once we’d arrived (“OMG! baby ruths! of course!”). i tell you, there's nothing like buying a shirt for $2. i even managed a problem-free purchase at penneys!

it was a lovely weekend away, and we had a very nice time. today, we drove home to my parents’ house for my official birthday dinner, prepared by young beatrix: chicken fajitas (BEYOND delicious, and YB’s own recipe) with CAKE for dessert. it was a devil’s food cake with homemade vanilla-marshmallow icing. i took five pieces home with me. i expect them to last through tuesday. my mom bought me a bunch of cat-rearing equipment (litter box, carrier, poop scooper) in advance of the feline landing, assorted household stuff and melanie C’s two latest CDs. YB bought me a giant digital clock and gave me an I.O.U. for a cordless phone...which was a rather elaborate art project! all in all, a very cool haul. i only just finished putting stuff away around 10pm.

now it’s after 11:40pm, and there are only about 20 minutes left in my birthday. time to do some reflecting, some planning and some evaluating...the annual “what did i do this past year, what will i do this next year?” recap and forecast.

it’s going to be a long night.