la vie en rose

There are several blogs that I follow, 2 of which are written by sisters: The Nie Nie Dialogues and CJane (there are your links, Bridgette!). For regular followers of CJane you'll recognize her Tender Mercies posts as times in her life when things ended up working out just when she needed them to. I had a similar experience on my birthday, so here is my own Tender Mercies: Birthday Edition.

Thursday night (the 17th) I was at the UW Bothell campus. After I was done there I trekked back up a long hill to the parking lot, talking with J on the phone on the way. I headed home and put Evey to bed, watched a little TV, and went to bed myself. The next morning was my birthday and I didn't have to work. J brought me breakfast in bed and the 3 of us just lounged around until it was time to head out to my end-of-the-year company lunch down in Wallingford. J packed Evey in the carseat and took her downstairs and I was gathering up the things for the diaper bag when I realized that my wallet was missing.

The house was a wreck, so I was already in a bad mood. I didn't want to spend my birthday at a company lunch and all I had wanted was a clean apartment. I wasn't getting to do what I wanted to do and I didn't get what I wanted. In fact, I didn't get anything. Not being able to find my wallet just seemed to fit in with the pity party I was already having. I threw stuff around on the couch and searched through the piles on the table to no avail. We had to leave.

I was stressed about not knowing where my wallet was all day. I just knew that my identity was being stolen at that moment and that someone else was out there, living it up, on my birthday. As we drove in the car I knew that I had to put on a good face. We had a good time at the lunch (Evey didn't spit up, thank goodness) and then went to Gasworks Park for a photo shoot. We searched the car for the wallet; still no luck. J treated me to some Trophy Cupcakes (the Snickerdoodle one was delicious, but I'm still a Frost Doughnuts kind of gal). We went home and made Mexican Condiment Soup (a birthday tradition). I was becoming resigned to the fact that my wallet would never be found and that I would have to spend the next day calling the credit card companies and all that.

As we were making dinner Evey was sitting in her chair on the floor next to us. She was being too cute so I leaned down and tickled her fat little belly. She laughed so hard it surprised me. I did it again and she laughed even more. It went on that way for like 10 minutes. Being with her makes me realize over and over that there are better presents out there than even finding a lost wallet. So I just quit stressing about it.

J then walked over with the # to the UW Bothell lost and found. I called them and asked if anyone had turned in a wallet. Someone had, only a couple of hours before. I told the lady that I would be there right away. My wallet had been sitting in the parking lot overnight and all that day. It was lying open and soaking wet. But the contents were all there.

As I left the lost and found and ran back up that long hill I thought, "This is one of those tender mercies!" It turned out to be a good birthday after all.