#Happy bittersweet birthday movie#
#Happy bittersweet birthday driver#
#Happy bittersweet birthday full#

I said this before but I’ll say it again, because I simply can’t stress how crucial a role you play in keeping BitterSweet alive and kicking. Though the basic concept and look has changed significantly, it’s still the same creation beneath it all, and I still return to it for the same reason I always have and will: Because of you. Not for a second did I imagine that it would still be around today, that I would still feel a passion for logging my crafts and recipes, putting my work on public display. No longer so uncertain on its feet, this humble little blog always surprises me at how strong it can be- And what sturdy support it has to fall back on when it isn’t.

#Happy bittersweet birthday full#

Phone: 21.Unbelievable but true, my baby has outgrown its diapers and training wheels, moving up in the world as a full-fledged toddler with four full years under its belt. Naila Francis is a feature writer at Calkins Media. Life in LaLa Land appears every other Sunday in the Life section. And I am dancing with the past and the present, furrowing all their sweetness into the freedom he’s helped me to seek. He is there, after all, not a melancholy weight, but a bright song bursting through the atmosphere of gratitude. I can’t help smiling as I decide to put in on. Amid all the festivity, I find a CD my ex made me, his “Happy, Funky Mix” that is tucked into a case I open looking for something else. God, I think, has gifted me with an extraordinary turn around the sun. Knowing she’d be out of town on my birthday, she arranged for it to arrive on the occasion itself. Even when I go to the mailbox, guarding an irrepressible hope, I find not a card from him, but a package from the very friend who’s taught me the importance of celebrating ourselves. With so much to savor, the sad yearning I know is still there seems to have thinned and pulled back its teeth.

#Happy bittersweet birthday driver#

I could have floated home, and in some ways I do with our driver capturing the essence of what the day has been about: simple, joyful connection reminding me I matter. For three hours, we laugh and catch each other up on our lives, while joking with our attentive waiter who makes such a fun and outrageous show of serving us, I proclaim he deserves an award. (Yes, I have an obsession.)īy the time I meet my friend for dinner in the city, at a restaurant I’ve always wanted to try, I feel utterly spoiled and lucky. My mom and I browse through some of our favorite stores after lunch and stop for lattes at a local coffee shop before driving to her house, where my brother and his family stop by to wish me happy birthday and my niece presents me with the most fabulous pair of toe socks I’ve ever owned. The three of us have long made a tradition of celebrating each other’s birthdays together, but we fell off schedule last year and are thrilled to finally revive our club.

On the schedule are massages for both of us and then lunch with her best friend at a sushi restaurant I haven’t been to in years but loved the first time I ate there. I’ve taken the day off and my mom, who celebrated her birthday the week before, has, as well.

Even as I reflect on the year past, and all its challenges, I know they brought me to the woman I am in that moment, and I am proud of who she is and who she is becoming. So while my ex is among the thoughts flitting through my mind the morning of my birthday, I make a conscious choice to be grateful for the fullness of my life. By the time her husband took her out to dinner, it was the precious topper on a richly satisfying day.

#Happy bittersweet birthday movie#

Rather than relying on her husband or other loved ones to make it all she hoped it would be, she orchestrated a celebration that fed her every whim, from the morning coffee she picked up on her way to delight in the tulips at Longwood Gardens to the movie she treated herself to and the Dansko outlet she visited to find a beautiful pair of clogs. I took a page from a good friend’s book, who a few years ago inspired me by crafting her dream birthday. It’s hard to believe dread was a threatening menace the day before when each moment wings from joy to joy. And that sense of celebration only deepens as the hours wear on. From the moment I awake to singing voicemails, and texts and phone calls from friends and family, I feel enveloped in love and appreciation. Yet I brace for an equally expected absence, for a silence I imagine will snake its disappointment into my day, despite all I’ve planned to ensure a surfeit of happy activity.īut as I look back on my day after I get home that night, I can honestly say it was one of the best birthdays I’ve ever had. But surely, on my birthday, he’ll make an exception, I think, push past that boundary even at the risk of aching hearts and stirred-up longings to cradle me in a brief and tender gladness.