He Says It’s His Birthday [by Katy]

[For three weeks, Josh and Katy blogsit]

Twenty-eight years ago today, in 1976, my husband Josh was born. Because of this event several decades in the distant past, yesterday I got up early and decorated our house.

I had a color scheme. Blue and purple. See, I put up balloons:

And I decorated our dining room table! I nicely wrapped the two ties I gave him in matching colored paper. See them? And I carefully put party favors on each plate.

Can you see the party favors? MATCHING BAGS of Nerds candy. Nerds are the best, the artificially-flavored sugar pellets of the gods. I used to sell them as a fundraiser for the National Honors Society in high school. Ah, the memories.

But this isn’t about me. It’s not MY birthday. (Though my birthday is September 10. I will also be 28.)

Unless you grew up in a Dickensian work house, I am certain you have at least a few glowing memories of childhood birthdays. Me, I once had an Annie party to which I wore the trademark red-and-white dress. I was a STAR. And Josh talks fondly about a party that involved a train cake with chocolate chip cookie wheels.

Now birthdays are still fun, of course. But we have hit that point in time when they start to provoke little pinpricks of anxiety about aging, too.

I mean, not that there’s ANYTHING wrong with turning 28! I know lots of people who have done it! And according to some article my mother read on an airplane recently , the clothing company Esprit considers age 28 to be the perfect age, the age everyone wants to be. It is their target demographic! Would Esprit lie to us?

But then again, when you are 28, you are really too old to be a prodigy any more. No one is going to say: it’s amazing, he published his first novel at 28! You are also no longer in your “mid-twenties.” Twenty-eight is definitely your late twenties. Josh is now definitely in his late twenties.

Wow, that must suck! Fortunately, I’m still a youthful 27. And to keep Josh from contemplating old age, I had a big day planned: brunch out, dinner out, dessert in. So much to do! I needed to orchestrate fellow partygoers getting to restaurants, and make from scratch a four-berry pie and brown sugar chocolate chip bars. You’ll hear more, coming up next. –katy