Vintage

It's my birthday today, and I'm forty-six years old. I'm not one of those people who hates birthdays and fears getting old. I actually am unashamedly really into my birthday, and I'm really into celebrating birthdays, my kids' birthdays, my friends' birthdays -- I just love them. I love presents, both giving AND receiving, and I love birthday cake even more. I love getting the attention, actually, and I love giving it. I really do.

So, last night two dear friends took me out to dinner. I got to the restaurant first, as always, because I'm always, always on time (I'm a Virgo), and was led to my seat by the host, a young, pretty woman dressed in a navy blue and white polka dot dress. It stopped about three inches above her long, smooth legs, buttoned up to her chin and looked amazing and sexy.

I said, I like your dress a lot.

She answered, Thank you! I like your tunic. (And as an aside, I cringe at the word "tunic" -- it just conjures up "matron" or maybe even Maud from "and then there's Maud")

I said, When I was first married many years ago (and blog readers, if you don't know, I have a PAST that included another marriage but that's a whole other story) I had a "going away" dress that looked so much like yours. It was navy and white polka-dot, too.

Looking down at her dress, she answered, Yeah, I love this dress. It's vintage. When I saw it, even though it had a huge stain on the front, I had to have it.

VINTAGE!!!! How perfect is that on the eve of my forty-sixth birthday?

I'm vintage. When my friends came in, we laughed in the way that good, close friends laugh.

And then I ordered a Pim's Cup with ginger beer, cucumber juice and something deliciously limey. I had a salad with baby lettuces and tiny slivers of vegetables and a bowl of homemade papardelle with bolognese. I opened my presents, a tiny book of Emily Dickinson's poetry and a beautiful Indian scarf. We talked and talked for hours, until the waiters began to blow out the candles and move around the chairs and then we walked out into the cool Los Angeles night, warm and full of good food and conversation.

I love birthdays and I might even love being vintage because there's nothing better than "old" friends.

Thank you Emily and Sylvia!