I’m sitting in the hospital lobby, sipping coffee near the Starbucks kiosk from which it was purchased. My mother is in surgery, having her hip replaced. It had gotten so bad she could hardly walk, even with a walker, so it was time. She will be 74 in August, and is not yet ready to give up her mobility or independence, so surgery it is. We were up at 4:30 am and had my Mom here by 5:45. My husband Jeffrey (the Saint,) drove us here this morning and is on call to pick me up later today once Mom is back in her room and settled in for the remainder of her stay. She is hoping to be home tomorrow, so we plan to be back to scoop her up, new hip in tow, and bring her home where I will play caretaker until my sister arrives to take over for the weekend. While there are better ways to spend a day, I’d rather be here than at work.

Tomorrow is my 48th birthday. While it would have been nice to stick with the tradition we started 3 years ago, and return to the Animal Adventure Park in Binghamton to visit “my” giraffe family and meet the new baby, and Tajiri’s brother, Azizi, Mom’s surgery put the kibosh on out of town plans. Once my sister relieves me of home care duties, and I’m back home tomorrow afternoon, I will celebrate simply, with a dinner and cocktails with Jeffrey and the BF Jim, who is coming up from CT to help me celebrate. The sole relevance of my birthdays, at this point, are that they mark the completion of one more year of work behind me, and one less year until retirement. I will have exactly 7 years from tomorrow, and then I will be free.

Unless Jeffrey or Jim got me that winning lottery ticket that I asked for. Then it’s a whole new ballgame.