It's My Birthday And I'll Bake If I Want To

Friday's my birthday. I am telling you because I am telling no one else. We're going to a couple of Halloween parties of some friends of TD's. While I hate the fact that Halloween steals my thunder, what I hate even more is when a lot of people pay attention to me, except on occasions when such attention is diffused into some collective ceremony in which I am not a primary focus (hence, my desire to elope or get one of my friends to get a Universal Life Church certificate). For instance, I actually enjoyed my graduation ceremonies from law school and college, because I hung out with friends and it was a big party. And my family has been proud of me for exactly two days out of the 10,217 days I have lived thus far, so it was nice to bask in the glow of that and have pictures taken on the one day I paid someone to curl my hair for me. But birthdays--ehhh. I love celebrating other people's birthdays and I love giving and getting gifts, but the few times I've thrown myself a party, I've felt exhausted by the attention and the hyper sociability.

Anyway, my birthday being this weekend, and this weekend being full of parties, the last thing I want is to steal Halloween's thunder and have my Satanic birth date the subject of discussion, although that would serve it right, the greedy minx. I also hate being sung the "Happy Birthday" song in public, especially at restaurants.

So this weekend, in addition to the parties in which no one will know it is my birthday, he'll probably take me to dinner, and I have requested a trip to the restaurant supply store so that I can buy myself some cake pans that I do not for some reason have, like a spring form pan and a couple of round pans for making layer cakes. And I think I want to eat fried chicken for lunch. Either that or a burrito the size of a child's leg.

But on Friday night before Party #1, I'm making my own birthday cake and dinner so as to celebrate my birthday with TD and then not talk about it the rest of the night. Plus I get to eat what I want and not worry about a long wait at a restaurant, which may make us late. I think I'll make this cake again. I've made it twice already for other people, and it's my favorite cake so far. Mainly because I don't care as much for frosting, and have zero patience for cake decorating. I'm also thinking of making my favorite foods, even if they don't go together. My mom used to make me spaghetti and meatballs and french fries for my birthday when she remembered it (six kids, nine grandchildren, hard to keep track). Yum. Pasta and french fries.