"Thirty Seven?!?!"
As seems to be the usual way, my birthday morphed into a week long celebration. The distance from family and the vagaries of Amazon's shipping speeds meant that the gifts trickled in all week. Kelly had a final on Monday, so we just went out for Thai food (TRADITION!).
Saturday was the best though. Outro Michael (shown above) and his girlfriend, Candice, served an outstanding crab feast... replete with crab bisque, corn fritters, home-made sauces and half of a dungeness crab. We followed that up with a fantabulous Guinness cake baked by my wife. From there we went and saw Paula Poundstone perform her standup act.
It was fascinating to watch the live crab be dropped into the boiling water. On one hand, I felt a twinge of remorse. I think that feeling is a bizarre byproduct of our urbanized and gentrified lifestyles. Food is not something grown, raised or caught. It is something that magically appears in shrink-wrapped packaging on our shelves next to the Soylent Green. Heck, Kelly and I were amazed last year at watching eggplants grow. I figure, if I can't handle the reality of the process, I shouldn't be eating the food. And on the other hand, it was really freaking tasty.
I had a really hard time with my last California birthday (#29), and I was worried that this one would be similar. Thanks to some real support from my wife and friends (and the help of an income higher than a grad student), it was a very special and energizing experience. I miss all of you who are far away, but you will just have to work your way out here soon.
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