Raging, Ranting, Raving, and Rhapsodizing

Today is my birthday, and it's a gray, misty day here in the Mile High City. From my reception desk on the 17th floor I have a beautiful view of the mountains, silhouetted dark through the fog.

I sent my mom a text message this morning giving her the exact address for my building, in case she needs to know "for some reason", :::cough cough::: balloons, flowers!! :::cough::: I have been pining away for that ostentatious display of affection delivered right to my desk... if there is one day for me to receive that display, it would be today. (I'm a poet, and you didn't even know it).

I love my birthday. I tell everyone, especially on a milestone birthday like today, my 21st. But as the day wears on, I hear more and more variations on a theme: will I be going out and getting tanked? (no, as a matter of fact, I will not) It's a little depressing to me that even my Christian friends assume that getting drunk will be the chief activity of my evening.

Years ago, in high school, my friend Josh told me he would buy me a Corvette for my birthday (a promise which was fulfilled in the form of a hot wheels collector toy), and every year he calls or emails on my birthday and we joke about this corvette. Maybe someday when he's made millions of dollars for some huge mining company, or NASA, or whoever, he'll actually buy me my Vette'.

Tonight, my family is taking me out to dinner at one of my favorite restaurants, Benihana's, where they cook your food right on the table in front of you, and the cooks always make the same, tired old jokes about how it's their first day. Interestingly, it's a Japanese restaurant, and all the waitresses and hosts are Japanese, but all the cooks are Hispanic guys. Maybe Mexicans make the best Japanese food? Anyway, after that Stephen is going to take me out to get a glass of wine, which I have been looking forward to for weeks. (LOL- the Speedy delivery guy just came in, and it's his birthday too. how fun!)

I feel like answering the phone... "Good Morning, (the company I work for) USA... this is Rachel, and it's my birthday! How can I help you?" I hope I never turn into one of those women who hates her birthday because she's (gasp!) getting gray hairs and wrinkles isn't as thin as she used to be. Maybe I'll feel differently when I experience it myself, but I actually look forward to my first gray hair. I like the idea of getting older. I think I'll love my birthday more every year... there's beauty in every season, and it makes me sad to see women longing for the season which has passed, all the while missing the beauty of the season they are entering.

I'm still waiting for some flowers!!! Any of these would be acceptable:


































Does it come with the balloon-patterned vest? That's the best part.























It's "aaaaawww!" inducingly cute.


















Come to think of it, this particular display is better suited for valentines day. Stephen could get me the the flowers are I'll get him that sweet red tie to match.


















I could probably polish this thing off by 5.










This is Phyllis from The Office, from the Valentines Day episode. If you don't watch The Office, start. Immediately.