I'm A Spring Chicken!

I've said it before and will say it again, springtime is my favorite season. Hands down I love seeing nature wake up from winter's sleep and things turn green. Sure the pollen turns my car yellow and the porch is dusted with it as well as everything outside. Don't wear black pants if you want to sit outside on a nice day. It won't turn out good, for sure.

Nature is not the only thing that wakes up in March, I have several friends and relatives celebrating birthdays in March, including myself. I'm not talking about a couple, I'm talking a huge number of birthdays including an Aunt, cousins, nephews and the list goes on of people close to me sharing the season. While most of us are no longer spring chickens, we were at one time fresh eyed beings marveling at the pretty pastel colors, deep green of leaves and grass, and bright blossoms from flowers. Even when they occasionally get a dusting of snow left over from winter. I still say the best ground hog is in patties or links and not as weather predictors.

With so much going on all at once, things like birthdays sometimes take a backseat to our complaints of this or that seasonal abnormalities. As we get older, birthdays become "just another day". There's less milestones making them special, like becoming a teenager, driver's licenses, drinking age or they eventually hit you with the realization you have to select a whole new age group on online forms. Cakes become cup cakes with a candle in it or you can't indulge because your glucose is off the scale or your hips are too wide for the door. They happen and we just move on. No presents, just another day like Tuesday or Thursday.

One year, as my birthday was approaching, Mom asked me what kind of cake I wanted for my big day. I've never had any cake I didn't like, so how does a kid turning 8 or 9 answer that question? I like all cakes regardless of what's inside, even plain cake with no frosting is good to me. It's gotta be pretty dry and crusty for me to not like cake! She was determined to get an answer though and make me the perfect cake, so all I could come up with is blue. I want a blue cake.

The day finally came and we had several relatives over, most of them also celebrating their March birthday,s and Mom put out her usual spread of food and drinks. She then brought out the blue cake, adorned with candles. It was sky blue and I couldn't imagine how she made it so perfectly. Everyone got a kick out of my blue cake and it didn't take long for it to be gone. It went down in my personal history as the best birthday I ever had and remains my favorite to this day.

I still celebrate every trip around the Sun now, but mainly as a cancer patient, I appreciate every one as well as each new day. I'd give anything if Mom could bake me a cake again, but that's a precious memory that can only happen in my mind.