Birthdays

Well, today is Derek's birthday. The difficult thing for me is, first of all, how do you handle the Sunday birthday? It tends to be a bit difficult to celebrate ON the day, but at the same time I hardly think it should pass unnoticed--even if it had been celebrated the night before. I've decided to go ahead and make the day special (i.e. he's king of the world today and picks his meals), but all the hoopla happened last night. Plus, let's be honest. How much of this celebration was for Derek and how much was for Avril? She opened at least half of his presents and extracted far more enjoyment from his helium balloons than he did. Did I expect anything different? No. In fact, I really played to her enjoyment!
Furthermore, Derek is a riddle wrapped in an enigma when it comes to birthdays. Two weeks ago, I suggested we attempt a SuperBowl birthday party. He seemed to like the idea, but when I mentioned it again a couple days later, his interest had decidedly waned. So I asked if he would prefer a small get-together. He perked right up. Then he decided he probably needed to study. This Thursday, two days before the party was potentially going to be held, he still hadn't decided on a guest list or if he even wanted a party. He finally made up his mind. Yesterday. At noon. So of course I wanted it to be special and fun and have good food, so I rushed to the store and got a bunch of stuff for hors d'oevres and what not (the MOST delicious bruschetta recipe--- if you ask me, I'll get it to you), chips and salsa, the classic chocolate pudding cake, dip brought by the only friends who knew in advance. Luckily his two single friends had no plans and showed up for a short time. But the two couples I talked to could only tentatively agree to come--- neither did. Next year, I'm throwing a surprise party.