My Birthday

It was a typical spring evening in Rio de Janeiro. The humidity in the air was so thick you could wash your hair with it, or cut it with a knife - if you're into everyday, unoriginal expressions. My hair was defying the law of gravity and proving every stereotype associated with curly/frizzy hair. At one point I considered cornrows like Monica when she went to the Bahamas in Friends, but rejected the idea when I got a mental image of what my face would look like - a perfect, shiny circle. Not flattering.

Earlier in the day I had woken up to find an orchid waiting for me, and only moments later opened the door to find a delivery guy with another one. It was clear that even though I was having one of the worst bad hair days since everyone in the 80's, someone very powerful was smiling in my direction. Still recovering from the beauty of the orchids and the sparkling fairy happiness of my Christmas tree, I drank my morning iced mocha and turned on my laptop.

While I opened Outlook I held my breath hoping and praying that my smiling Protector would remove emails from my inbox if there were too many - luckily (or by divine intervention) there were so few emails I finished the first part of my morning to-do list before you could say sushi. And that's exactly where I went for lunch. My sister and Tati kidnapped me and whisked me off for an extravagant lunch at a wonderful place where we ate crazy delish food and drank kiwi frozen caipisakes (caipirinha made with Japanese sake). So good.


Was my day over? - not quite. A good friend of mine offered to make me a special birthday dinner - Peruvian food. I had long suspected that I didn't like Peruvian food because when I was there we never ate Peruvian food - in fact I don't think we ate anything resembling food at all. We lived on a poo related diet, as it turns out. After dinner last night, I can say with complete and surprising certainty that Peruvian food is delicious. I wish I could go back in time and eat real food there - I lived 2 whole years in a country and never really experienced the cuisine. Sucks so much, you know?

Our memories and impressions of a country are definitely linked to the food we eat there. If you eat crap kebabs for 2 full years, there is very little chance that you're going to remember your time there fondly. All that to say, I had a tremendous birthday, received so many birthday wishes I was positively overwhelmed. I am surrounded by amazing friends and a huge wonderful family.

Now that I've turned 58 - at least it feels that way - I'm researching anti-aging skincare creams and will let you all know which one I choose to use next. Most likely a good cosmeceutical brand.

Tata for now!