A Good Day

[coffeedaiv]

I am now, officially, 54. As of yesterday. And it was a good day. I slept in, because I had the foresight and professional stability to do so (Thanks, Teamsters!). When I did rise up, i made coffee and breakfast. A dutch baby with blueberries, Chicken apple sausage. Then I called and talked to my mom and immediately older brother who was visiting with Mom. She is doing pretty well, he is doing pretty well. And then it was on to the Planned Adventure. A couple weeks ago, I realized A), I like tea. B) I have tea. C) I don't have a tea pot. I mean, I have my frech press pot, and I have a strainer. But if folks came over, would not be able to brew up a pot of Tea. Earl Grey. Hot. Or whatever. So, I decided this is a thing I will do, for myself (Side note, I love and appreciate other peoples wishes and acknowledgements on my birthday, and I do my level and absolute best to return the kindness. I also believe, have come to believe, that I am responsible for my own happiness, and if don't celebrate my birthday, and buy myself nice things or fun experiences, then I am less likely to have them. So, i have set out to do that, each year being a new adventure of some kind, often resulting in a tangible lasting thing I look at in the time afterwards, and it reminds me and fills me with joy). This year, that involved getting a tea pot. Per suggestions, I looked first at Friday afternoon tea. And while it is true that she has a couple tea pots, she doesn't have very many of them in stock (at least, not clearly so on the website). So, I decided to start my quest at Pike Place Market. Which I have not visited in quite a while, and it is slightly more accessible from where I am. So. One quick bike ride later, I was there. Sur La Table did not have any tea pots (a nice collection of kettles, of various descriptions), and I got to play with knives for a few minutes (high ish end chef knife demo). Then I made my way to Market Spice. And they had exactly the pot I was envisioning. Simple ceramic blue pot. And so, just like that, I bought it. If by "just like that" you understand I also got a couple different flavors of cocoa, and two kinds of peppercorns. Also, because I am Smart, I realized I didn't know if there was a strainer included in the pot, and I asked, and there wasn't, so I bought one of those (after determining which one would properly fit in the pot). Packed all my purchases into my bag, wandered the market, got a bagel dog from Seattle Bagels. Back to Capitol Hill. Coffee and a slice of tea cake at EBB, chatted with a friend for a bit (we realized we have been friends for more than 15 years, recently, which isn't nothing). C had intended to provide Piroshky's from work, but that plan fell through, and so we pivoted to Delfino's pizza. Which became Pizza's. A medium deep dish Pepporoni and Pineapple, and a small Spinach. Both of which were totally awesome. AND! she brought Cupcakes! And a Candle! And she Lit My Candle. No, I mean, literally. Apparently it is bad luck or bad form or something to light your own birthday candle, so she did if, and I blew it out. And, finally, settled in to play D&D with the folks. Combat ensued. I rolled two nat20s, on my Eldritch Blasts. The first crit? 3 points of damage on 2d10. The Second? 4 points, on 2d10. I swapped out my (digital) dice after that. I suppose, if I could have just switched out the d10s, that would have been fine. It worked, we saved the hostages (for the moment; one of the hostage takers escaped), and there are three more groups of baddies aligned with the hostage takers. So, the adventure continues. And, because I firmly believe that there should be no bedtime on a birthday, I took today off as well. Going to get a flu shot, in a little while (after all, this is a "sick day" rather than a "I feel like taking a day off" day). And so the new year of life begins. Given what else is going on in my life and the world... I expect a lot to change, and some of it is going to be awesome and some of it is going to be challenging. Life is like that.