And Many Hormonal Returns

Saturday was my birthday. And I behaved completely out of character. During the days before The Grand Event, I fell into some sort of premenstrual/ menopausal funk (how can this possibly be fair?), although I didn't know what the hell was the matter with me at the time, and I had no desire to announce my day to the world. This is not like me. I normally take every, single opportunity to tell the world it's my birthday and revel in the warm fuzzies of it all.  But this year, I didn't send out a pre-announcement on my blog, I put nothing on facebook, I didn't even take out an ad in the newspaper (which I've never done but I've considered it!)

I mourned the fact that I still hadn't found a birthday crown, I took a gander at the royal wedding and realized the damned princess had made off with MY crown,  I half-heartedly tried to decide which pair of high heals I'd wear to make up for the missing crown, I baked another tarte au citron and tried a new, fabulous, simple recipe for a Hazelnut-Chocolate torte, which I found over at Darjeeling Dreams, another one of my go-to blogs for great recipes.

There's something amazingly therapeutic about beating egg whites, don't you think? 

I wrote a couple of completely dismal, self-pitying emails, I wondered if I was going crazy...and then...

I woke up Saturday morning....to find the hormonal haze had lifted and it was going to be a great day!

And it was. I once again boarded the bus, this time headed for Lynn's house, with a sack full of baked goods, announced to the bus driver and all who could hear me (which I assume was everybody on the bus...I was feeling so great) that it was my birthday and I let them sing for me.

I lunched with these fabulous women

Upon my return, I announced to the landlord (who happened to be in the upstairs window) that it was my birthday so that I could graciously receive my birthday kisses from he and his wife.

I had dinner with more friends and partied until two am. I even took the liberty of taking a birthday extension (which I did announce on facebook....obviously feeling myself again) and went to the market and dined with more friends on Sunday night.

There was no announcement, no crown, no high heels...and it was still a great day weekend. My mom's card this year said "behind every super woman is a great pair of shoes". This is what I ended up wearing this weekend....

and I still felt REGAL! Birthdays have a way of doing that. They're even stronger than wacked-out hormones.