Yesterday was my birthday!
I turned the page on fifty and became fifty-one at six thirty-two in the morning. I'm one of those people who rejoices in their birthday, always happy to be older. I'm quite sure that at some point in the coming year, I will start referring to myself as fifty-two. Yes, I round up. It started on my thirty-ninth birthday. As my age came up and I told it, the person asking would respond with a wink, "How many years will that be?" BAHAHAHAHAHAHA. You' re a laugh riot. So I started saying that I was forty. The reply was always swift and always the same, "OH! You really don't look it!"
Le sigh.
So I round. I round up. It's my thing. Pretty soon, I'm going to start saying that I'm sixty. 'Cause I look unbelievable for sixty! Hey! I look awful for twenty-eight. But sixty? Hawt.
I like to do new things on my birthday and this year, at the Memphis Zoo, they have a new temporary exhibit, Sting Ray Bay. Why would I go to the zoo when I live in one you ask? They have animals there. Duh. As one of the few animals I have never touched, we went to feed the sting rays!
Scary right? Okay. True confessions? I have a fear of large fish. And some of these were three feet in diameter. Because they are trained for this, these animals loved to be touched. They fly around the edges of the tank, gliding under your outstretched hand. Surprisingly, the sting rays weren't sand paper-like as I expected. You know, like a shark's skin. They felt soft and fleshy. A baby's butt. Very unusual. The luck of my birthday had us arrive at feeding time! (11:00-12:00 and 2:00-3:00, I believe)
I screwed my courage to the sticking place and bought a cup of sardines and shrimp. You place the fish between your fingers in the middle of your palm and hold the palm flat. Stick your hand into the water and they swarm you as they smell it. The one who wins the prize is the one that reaches you first, slides up your palm and sucks the fish out of your hand! It's thrilling and frightening and ohhhh! I can't wait to do it again!
As a bonus, the bears were all very active and enjoying the weather. The pandas were in the outdoor enclosure for a change. Instead of snoozing indoors, reared up on a pile of bamboo, looking like they need a beer and a remote in either paw.
I know. He was walking around and everything. Exciting. You just don't understand.
And the grizzlies were catching trout in their river, play fighting and eating.
He was ginormous.
We went to one of my favorite places, Dejavu and had the boudin, Big Easy Pasta and Bananas Foster Cheesecake. Let that sink in. Bananas. Foster. Cheesecake. To die for. Then we headed on over to the movie theatre in midtown and saw Silver Linings Playbook.
And Hud gave me a little diamond Eiffel Tower to waer around my neck to remind me that we'll always have Paris.
Fifty-one may not be so bad. I might call it for the whole year.
