Yesterday was my birthday. It was one of those evil decade-type birthdays that tend to make people depressed, especially women. I was not looking forward to it and had made it clear that anything even remotely resembling dead flowers, Geritol, funerals, or the like would not be welcome.

Frankly, I just wanted to hide for it, mostly.

Turns out that it wasn’t so bad. I got cards from several people, an email from a long-lost friend, and my husband succeeded once again in surprising me.

It started at 5:30, my usual wake-up time. I went to get coffee, and there was a large box in front of the coffeemaker. In it was a much smaller box full of See’s Candies suckers and a dark chocolate bar. If you don’t know See’s Candy, I pity you. Their chocolates are fantastic and I just adore their suckers. There was also a cute card. Nice way to start the day.

Later in the morning, when I went to take a bath, I found a box with the l’Occitane body scrub that I love in it–tucked above the tub’s spigot.

Then, later in the afternoon, C called and told me to look on his desk. There I found a small box, inside of which was a pair of earrings–about 1.25 inches long, with a small peridot (my birthstone) set in-between the two long vertical silver bars.

I was all mushy by that point. What a great series of gifts. He had done very well and I was happy.

After he came home (bearing a lovely and VERY fragrant bouquet of flowers), we went down to the harbor to see the tall ships there. They’re having a festival of tall ships right now, so there were something like a dozen of them to look at. Really beautiful. I just love the bay and so this was a perfect thing to do for my birthday instead of going to a fancy restaurant. We were walking and talking and the sun was setting so the sails were all lit with this beautiful light. There wasn’t even any of the usual evening marine layer–instead, a refreshing breeze (good thing I was wearing a jacket, which is still weird to me on my birthday when it’s supposed to be blazing hot). Just a lovely way to pass the evening.

Suddenly, Christopher said that, since we weren’t going to go get a fancy dinner, he’d have to give me my “real gift” right there by the bay.

Real gift?! And the others were fake? Like he hadn’t already done enough?

But, he told me to close my eyes, and when I was allowed to open them, there was a small blue box with a white ribbon in his hands, just in front of my face. I was stunned.

Just about every hetero woman knows that a blue box with a white ribbon means a goodie from Tiffany & Co. I had always wanted something from there–nothing huge or jewel-encrusted–just something, but had never been so lucky. Not until last evening.

I was in tears opening it, and calling C every evil name in the book, for spoiling me like this. He was beaming.

Inside was a lovely, simple (and surprisingly heavy) teardrop of silver, hanging from a fine chain. Nothing I would have picked out for myself, but it couldn’t have been a better choice if I had. Sometimes C seems to know what I like even more than I do!

I think people must have though he just proposed or something, for the way they were staring at us as I hugged him. Yes, a bit of PDA, but I couldn’t help myself.

From there we went to the City Deli where I had a piece of incredibly rich birthday cheesecake. Most of the time I was just holding my pendant to my chest and grinning like a loony.

And shoveling cheesecake into my mouth.

Not a bad birthday at all.