A Quarantine Birthday
Having a birthday during coronavirus is kinda weird. You definitely don’t celebrate how you normally would (at least we didn’t). But that doesn’t mean your birthday is going to be bad. For me, I was full of joy.
In fact, my sister told me—before breakfast—that if it wasn’t my birthday, she would tell me to take it down a notch. My mom, on the other hand, had no problem telling me that (also before breakfast).
I went & got Chick-Fil-A for breakfast because, duh, & one of my favorite songs came on the radio, I rolled the window down, cranked it up & danced & sang along. (That was also the first time I’ve gotten to listen to my satellite radio in a long time & I was pumped!)
Oh, & I got a free cookie from Chick-Fil-A as my birthday treat. Those things are worth every single calorie!
I had a 20 minute dance party for myself later that morning with some great music.
It was my birthday & I was going to make the most of every second of it—no matter where or how I was celebrating it.
I’m not the biggest birthday person. I celebrate my birthday, I like my birthday, & I go all in on my birthday but I prefer to celebrate low-key. (I may or may not have said I was royalty because Queen Elizabeth & I share a birthday. Pretty sure that was the point when my mom told me to simmer. LOL) (Also, definitely not royalty by any stretch of the imagination. If only you had seen me sitting on the couch fresh off a workout eating Chick-Fil-A for breakfast. Definitely not royalty. Haha)
I usually celebrate with my entire family. Last year it fell on Easter so we did a triple celebration since my grandmother’s birthday was a few days before mine. This year…we stayed home (obviously) & celebrated just the four of us. My grandmother & uncle & aunt dropped off some birthday gifts for me but other than that, just the four of us. Heck, we all didn’t even sit in the same room & eat dinner. #wehavebeentogetherforanentiremonth
I knew that I didn’t want to go out to a restaurant even if we had the choice of doing that. I either wanted to order in or have my mom or sister make one of my favorite meals.
I knew that, while I love to bake, I did not under any circumstances want to bake my own birthday cake because the last 2 years that I did, it was stressful. I swore that I would never make my own birthday cake again.
I knew that I wanted to do whatever I wanted to do & nothing that I didn’t. I wanted to watch whatever I wanted on TV. & goodness gracious, I did NOT want to cook dinner or clean up the kitchen on my birthday & I most definitely did not & was not going to make up for not doing either of those on another night this week.
I would say that for the most part, my birthday went exactly how I wanted it. I got all of those things.
But here’s what was different:
-No family birthday party
-My sister’s gift to me is delayed because of coronavirus/shopping online—which is totally fine with me because I get to open a gift on another day & my birthday has been extended! Hooray!
-The restaurant I wanted to order dinner from was CLOSED. I have been wanting it for 2.5 weeks & I had to shift to a different restaurant at the last minute (thankfully, it was good too).
-I didn’t have cake. I made cheesecake bars two days before because my sister & I were ready for a new dessert in the house, I had one last night & called it my birthday dessert. I can’t believe I still managed to make my own birthday dessert (I actually can) because I swore I never would again but it was a lot less stressful than a cake! It was also the first year of my entire life that I didn’t have some sort of cake on my birthday.
-It felt even more special because my family/sister went out of their way to try & make up for the fact that it was a quarantine birthday.
My sister went & picked up our dinner (another thing I wanted was to not have to go get it) & while she was out she bought me flowers & balloons! I was so surprised! (She also went through a lot to get both of them which makes it even more special! Thanks Macy girl!)
Quarantine birthdays are unique. We will (hopefully, probably) not celebrate another birthday like this. And they don’t always go how you think your birthday is going to go but they can be special. Birthdays still are special even though you might celebrate them differently this year.
You can still find joy out of every little thing.
I know I did.
Love,
P.S. Thanks to everyone who commented on FB posts, wrote on my wall, & texted me wishing me a happy birthday! It was a great one! Also, thanks to my fam for making yesterday special. 🙂 Love y’all so much!
