Five More Days- Weeeee!

I love birthdays- not just my own, but other people's as well. I think we don't take the time to celebrate people in our day to day lives and birthdays give us that opportunity. Of course I would prefer that we showered one another with affection and niceness every day but I am a realist and that just doesn't seem to be in the stars for my lifetime. I try to do it when I can but I also am wary of embarrassing people. Why are we all so uncomfortable with praise and attention when it seems we are all secretly craving it at our core?

I'm no different. Take my dear friend Hummingbird and her annual birthday ritual. She enjoys making those at my birthday celebrations share why they love Jonesy (her nickname for me). I think those in attendance at my 29th birthday celebration in Las Vegas will remember the painful display of my then-current beau's ineptitude and self-centeredness when it came his turn to enlighten the group on why he loved me. Hummingbird tried to breeze over it at the time but from that moment on she was telling me: "He just doesn't GET my Jonesy!" As in, he doesn't understand the complexity and wonderfulness that is Ms. Sizzle. I blush. (And uh, she was right about that one.) At first I felt a bit shy about the attention of the ritual. I didn't want people to feel put on the spot. And I certainly didn't want to see anyone struggling for nice things to say about me! But over the years, I have grown to like the tradition and have even attempted to incorporate it at other people's celebrations.

I like to call people up on their birthday and sing them my Marilyn Monroe version of "Happy Birthday". I like to plan elaborate secret surprises to wow the people I love. I like to bake cakes and decorate them with frosting flowers or silly words and sprinkles. I like lighting the candle so they can make a wish. I like to let you know that I am grateful that you were born and that I am lucky to have you in my life. How can any of that be a bad thing, I wonder?

Happy Birthday to my Aries/Taurus friends: Meagan, Natalie, Michelle, Rita, Sami and Jeff.