So Raise Your Glass...For Me...

Imagine that...my birthday and the kickoff to Lent falling within the same week... I mean, we all know I am going to do everything I am not supposed to do on my birthday anyway...and there you go, like a kiss from Baby Jesus himself, the anniversary of my birth falls one day short of those dreadful 40 days of (fake...nonexistent...) abstaining (again this year I am adopting a Sheen-like disregard for sacrificing...in fact, am adding some new bad behaviors for good measure...) and lands right on top of the world's greatest celebration of sin and debauchery, Fat Tuesday!!!! How apropos!

So...never being one to hold back from celebrating the blessings I enjoy -- that I am still here...that I love and am loved...that there is endless potential in the future...that I just know we have so many happy moments ahead of us -- I decided I would spend the birthday/Fat Tuesday lead-in by indulging my whims...well, more so than I normally do, though probably not the ways in which a tiger-blooded warlock might...

First, I decided it was my prerogative to go all badass and bought myself a pair of mirrored-lens aviator glasses while shopping with Ellie on the Lower East Side....and since they make me look like I am paying homage to Erik Estrada in CHiPs, I am thinking I need one of those naughty cop costumes they sell at Party Fair to go along with the shades.... You know, I'll wear it to the next PTO meeting or something...

And that was just the beginning...

Friday night Marisa and I agreed to accompany one another to a parents' social for our boys' swim team...and we showed up with a bottle of champagne and party girl enthusiasm... And this is kind of a side note, but we were greeted with suspicion by the women and thinly veiled curiosity from the men. I guess I can understand -- two women without husbands in tow, 10 years younger than the rest of the guests, wearing skinny jeans and carrying champagne. As I popped the cork and Marisa chatted up our sweet and gracious hostess, I caught two women about three feet away from us whispering to one another, and I see one snappily say "I have no idea who she is..." as she sneaks a glance at me....and I catch her eye, hold her gaze and raise my eyebrow at her...she turned purple and looked away. She spent the rest of the night hovering around us awkwardly. It's my birthday week...I am taking sh*t from nobody. Maybe I am a tiger-blooded warlock after all...

So, anyway...after about an hour, Marisa and I skip out and show up by surprise at TJ's door...she was already in pj's, but in we went for some Cabernet as she scoured the kitchen for some snacks, which were unnecessary considering this was a guerrilla attack cocktail party...but somehow she compiled a bizarre selection that we scarfed anyway -- Tostitos, brownies, BabyBel "lite" cheeses and Milk Duds...went well with the Cabernet... Winning!

So then early Saturday morning, Ellie happened to crawl into bed with me, waking me...and at that pre-dawn moment, I said: "Let's go shoe shopping today..." And like a good enabling daughter, she heartily agreed just before dozing off, snuggled up next to me. Later on, at Nordstrom, I bought her a pair of rainbow colored Converse sneakers and a pair of 5-inch high, platform-toed Joan & David sparkly platinum pumps for me ...What? they are very practical... Then we shared Crunchburgers and coffee ice cream shakes at Bobby's Burger Palace, totally snagging the last two empty seats before we even ordered our feast... And putting the "fat" in Fat Tuesday, I ate the juicy deliciousness with Ellie knowing full well that Rhonda and I are going back to BBP for a birthday lunch on Tuesday afternoon... Again, winning!

I wore my new 5-inch high, platform toed, sparkly platinum Joan & Davids on Saturday evening when the hometown posse gathered for the 2nd Annual Escape The Winter Doldrums party at The Brick House...and during dinner I sat with Pina, Colleen and the Pauls and we spoke of Pina and Paul's visit to Vegas a few weeks back, which inevitably brought us to settle on the subject of lap dances...how they differ when administered to a woman as opposed to a man...and we wondered what really goes on in the Champagne Room for the starting price of $250...pretty sure the champagne is not what is being ingested, but maybe I am wrong. So this all brought us to land on the fascinating discussion of br**sts...big, small, real and fake. The conversation was peppered with hysterical laughter from we ladies and wide-eyed amazement/suppressed delight from the Pauls. Sandy stopped by to give us some good-natured ribbing on our decibel level and Pina's Paul told him that while the female anatomy conversation started on the highbrow and quickly devolved to lowbrow, it was still damn good throughout... We're here to please! Stupidly, I didn't eat a bite at the party...still afraid of seafood cross-contamination...but I am pretty certain, in a room full of 50 people, I polished off most of the Prosecco on the bar by myself....my homage to the Champagne Room, I guess. The waiters eventually just handed me the bottle and walked away. Hey...it's my own personal Mardi Gras, remember???

So here I sit, the week not even officially kicked off and I am already spent...and I have all kinds of things to get to still in this celebration of life -- Sundaes at Bischoff's...Mojito Monday at Sabor (and no, that isn't an official promotion, that's just how I am spending Monday night...)... BBP Part Deux... There will be birthday cake with the kids...homemade birthday cards and love notes...birthday cocktails with the inner circle at Endless Vine...manicure-pedicure and more shoe shopping...a month full of dinner dates...looking ahead to my annual trip to Longboat Key with Susan, Mary and Sam...

And even if all of that gets canceled and postponed or whatever...even then, I will feel completely fulfilled and blissful this birthday season, because I am still here...I love and am loved...there is endless potential in the future...and I just know we have so many happy moments ahead of us.

Blessed and lucky....

Thank you all for being so incredibly special to me these past 34 years (stop laughing)....and may we enjoy many moments together in the decades ahead... Here's to a debaucherous Fat Tuesday and the Lenten experience you so desire... I will see you on Holy Thursday for a dive-barring celebration of the end of your abstinence...

Kisses and hugs from the Champagne Room...
xoxo, Suz

P.S. Super Happy Birthday and lots of love to Nance and ADP, who share this week with me, and whom I assure you, are much older than me.

Photos:

1. Cute little 7 year old Suz in a Dorothy Hamill haircut, March of 1977. To me this looks exactly like my Tim in a bowl cut wig and a dress...

2. Badass in my mirrored cop shades...just pretend I am not wearing the decidedly unthreatening tweed jacket and magenta scarf along with...

3. Motley cocktail party fare...what bar would be complete without Milk Duds???

4. My feet in the new sparkly platinum 5-inchers...beauty is pain...

5. The first Crunchburger of the week...

6. Hometown posse escaping Winter Doldrums...my champagne and Pina's cleavage taking center stage, of course...

7. We must have been taking the lap dance/Champagne Room talk on tour because these guys look extra happy...

8. Gramatically incorrect, but yummy, heartfelt love note from my sweet little darling Will...one of the three best gifts I have ever been given...