What a truly satisfying conclusion to my Birth Week this year! The thing that's so satisfying about it, actually, is that for the first time in
six years, I've managed to do everything I wanted within the calendar frame of the week itself—stretched to ten days, granted; because I always start on Friday of the weekend that starts it, and end on the Sunday that ends it. But this year? I didn't have to change any plans: nothing to reschedule later in the month, no one to ask for a rain check. Every person I wanted to do something with was able to keep the commitment within the intended time frame.
This hasn't happened
since 2017.
It should be noted, that was three years before the pandemic. Four years before I had to push the whole vacation back a week due to having actually caught covid. That was last year, the worst example: I had all ten days set with plans, and then I got sick. Jennifer was unavailable for the rescheduled week and so I couldn't go stay the night with her until May 14. Both last year and the year before, Laney was traveling in the converted van she lived in over the winters and was not around during my Birth Week; she and I did makeup activities May 28 last year, and August 28 in 2021.
You could say I managed to confine all my Birth Week activities to 10 days in 2020, but that was hardly a normal year: that was a mere month and a half after we all started having to stay home as much as possible, and my planned theme that year of State Parks (which I then did in 2021) had to be swapped out for having drinks with people over video chat. This actually allowed time to include far more people than usual, but it was also kind of depressing. Unable to go anywhere—aside from when Shobhit and I drove to Skagit Valley on my birthday, only to find all the tulips already harvested—I didn't even take the whole week off of work that year, opting instead only to take the day off on my birthday.
So what of 2019 and 2018, then? 2019 is sort of a special case, as Shobhit and I took a day trip to San Juan Island Saturday, April 20—a week before my Birth Week otherwise started—and I included that in that year's "Boats and Waterfronts" theme, as it was a day Shobhit had off work and allowed for it. (Shobhit had to work a half shift on my actual birthday, after which we did pedal boats on Green Lake.) And in 2018, with Claudia unavailable during my defined Birth Week, she joined my visiting Uncle David and Mary Ann on May 19 for a tour of the Amazon Spheres as part of that year's "Botanical Gardens" theme.
2017, though—all activities, all participants, the ten-day stretch only. This year it finally happened again.
Gabriel loves to take these errant activities I still lump into my Birth Week that are a week or more separated from it, and use it as completely illogical justification for telling people I celebrate a "Birth Month." He doesn't want to listen to the very straightforward argument that putting it that way clearly suggests to people that I'm spending an entire month celebrating my birthday, which I think he only does as a tactic to get people to agree with his assertion that the way I celebrate my birthday is ridiculous. Well guess what? No errant dates this year! Put that in your pipe and smoke it, mother
fucker!
Of course, he thinks celebrating for ten days is ridiculous on its own. Whatever. He also insists he has found other people who agree with him on this matter, a claim I think I can easily dispute, given the way he tries to manipulate people into shock and awe at my so-called "birth month," which never works. I don't think these people actually exist! Without exception, any person who is not Gabriel that I tell about my Birth Week thinks it's the greatest idea ever, or at the very least that it sounds fun. Clearly, I know how to surround myself with people who value celebrating all that you are, on your birthday, your birth week, or any other time of year!
Ivan, who shares a birthday with me, having been born nine years later, doesn't ever bother celebrating his birthday at all. I know there are people who aren't into it, some even bristle at the idea of being celebrated at all, whether by others or by themselves, which is fine. If a little sad. But I don't judge them for it. You do you! Some people could learn from this point of view.
Anyway! What a tangent, huh? I mean, not that I'm defensive or anything.
I rented a car again yesterday, from the same place on Pike Street half a block west of Boren. It was a hybrid
Jeep Wrangler, yet again. The guy at Avis asked if that car was okay, and I said, "Is that all you have here?" He replied, "They sent us seventeen." So, if you want to wind up with a hybrid Jeep Wrangler when you rent a car, just go to the Avis/Budget at 1011 Pike Street.
Anyway, I drove to the north yet again yesterday—but only to Everett this time, and a 35-minute drive was nothing at all compared to the three-hour drive crawling at an average of 20 mph on Saturday. I met up with Lynn and Zephyr, the latter of whom was actually born and raised in Everett (Lynn and I met in high school in Spokane), at a lovely ravine with a trail alongside
Forgotten Creek.
I kind of wish now that we had taken a version of the photo at the top of this post, where we were all not smiling, so I could say it's the cover of our next album.
I rented the car again because, again, Shobhit needed his for his campaigning. Usually I reserve my actual birthday for Shobhit, and initially I had our day trip to Skagit Valley planned thus on Sunday. But, as Shobhit is running for our district's position on the Seattle City Council, he has found he has the most success with a table set outside the Capitol Hill Sunday Farmers Market. So he could still do that, he requested that we switch the Skagit Valley trip to Saturday—and so, I switched the original Saturday plans to meet up with two other friends on Sunday.
In fact, before I even left for Everett, I went with Shobhit in his car, first to pick up balloons at The Red Balloon Company, just up 15th Avenue E from home—he also got another support signature and contribution from there. I then went with him to help set up
his table near the Sunday Farmers Market at Cal Anderson Park, as well as
record a video for his campaign socials.
The previous Sunday, he managed to procure a shocking 12 $10 minimum donations from people there. Sachin came to join him then, and did again this time, and he arrived a few minutes before I left. He told me that the previous weekend, people came up to ask what he was about before he even finished setting up the table. Interest wasn't so immediately high this time, almost certainly because the previous weekend it had been nice weather, and there were fewer people this time, on a cooler and cloudier day. Nevertheless, by the end of the day yesterday, Shobhit had yet another nine donations at the Farmers Market alone; he gathered another three from other places (including Red Balloon Company) over the course of the day. Setting up by the Farmers Market was clearly a wise choice.
Shobhit had invited Danielle to come stand at the table with him, and to my surprise, she told him it sounded fun. Predictably, she ran late. She brought Rylee with her though, and according to Shobhit, Rylee was fairly engaging with passersby. Danielle, apparently, not so much. Sachin was there to help again too, and both he and Shobhit commented on how shy I was. Well, this sort of thing just isn't my jam. I have nevertheless committed to standing with Shobhit there next Sunday. Sachin may be right that the best course of action may be for me to take over once people actually start signing the form and donating, so Shobhit can continue his spiel at other people. We'll see.
I left Shobhit at the park at about 11:15, so I could get to Forgotten Creek in Everett by noon. While I waited or Lynn and Zephyr, who were about ten minutes later arriving, I made even more of a "hidden gem" discovery right across the street from the trailhead:
Depot Park, with its old train station converted into a garden park some 25 years ago, complete with a caboose replica built on the premises. I had already walked to the end of the very small park and back before Lynn and Zephyr arrived, but after they did, they hadn't known about the park either and so they went in to check it out. On our way back out, there was a volunteer gardener there and we asked her about the place, and she shared quite a lot about its interesting history.
After Forgotten Creek, Lynn and Zephyr took me to lunch at Bluewater Distilling, which had excellent food and even better dessert—Lynn and I split a surprisingly large strawberry rhubarb crisp. After that, we took a stroll around nearby Boxcar Park, with its sawmill history including a
replica sawmill complete with information signs about finger dismemberment. Gather the children 'round and read them a story!
Last stop! Shauna left PCC in 2008—fifteen years ago!—and yet, she has continued to participate in my Birth Week, without interruption, ever since. In fact, it's often the only time I see her in a given year, so I'm glad we at least keep up with this. In fact, this is her 17th Birth Week participation.
Okay, okay. Full disclosure: Shauna did miss
one year, in 2011. I can't remember why. But I'll never forgive her! I'm kidding.
I was already going to be driving back home from Everett, so I figured I should find a place to meet up in her neck of the woods: according to my online research,
Scriber Lake Park is a "hidden gem" surrounded by the City of Lynnwood. We spent maybe an hour and 15 minutes there, just strolling through the trails through the park, catching up, and it was quite lovely.
As was, of course, my Birth Week in its entirety. This is consistently one of the best weeks of my year and this was absolutely no exception, and critically that's thanks to every single person who spent time with me during it. I want to make some wisecrack here, but instead I'm feeling too earnestly grateful. Goddammit!
On the way home, I drove first to the Costco in Shoreline, to fill up the gas tank before returning the Jeep at the car rental after hours, which I then did after driving back to Seattle. I barely caught a #11 bus back home from there, and then Shobhit and I spent much of the rest of the evening watching the night's TV, all on HBO:
Succession and
Barry. We had
quesadillas and cocktails for my birthday dinner, and then shared
the half of the bumbleberry pie Mimi suggested we take home with us on Saturday after we bought the pie for her and Steve at Schuh Farms so we wouldn't come empty handed.
I posted that photo of us eating the pie as the closing comment on my Birth Week 2023 on all my socials.
What's the next vacation, then? I actually don't know! Too much is up in the air for the next several months due to Shobhit's campaign. I continue hoping we can get away for a night or two or our anniversary in June. There's a lot happening in June, actually, from several Pride events to the Fremont Solstice Parade to our anniversary. I'd say I hope May will give me a breather, except the Seattle International Film Festival is this month! And I can't just ignore
that.
I'll engage in some meditative calm some other day.
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