birthday stress

The family birthday celebration of 2005 will commence tomorrow. My Mom put me in charge of it this year because she has to travel across the state to work here tomorrow. She is bringing my Dad along for the ride. My brother will be here for a review class for a certification exam he has to take in a few weeks. My sister will driving in just for the evening. For those of you who don't know, four of our family's five birthdays (one of those four is mine another is Mom's) fall within a week. Mom turns 50 tomorrow, so we are gathering to celebrate all five birthdays on her birthday, at her request. Since I am the only one that lives on this side of the state, my apartment has become the homebase. Now, I realize, to most people, it may not seem like a big deal to get five people together for a simple meal, some cake, a few presents, topped with good cheer. That is because most people do not know my Mom. I love my Mom to death but she has standards. I have spent the last four days cleaning my apartment. I live alone with my 7 lb cat. I clean on a regular basis, how dirty can we possibly be? Dirty enough, considering it has taken me four days to conduct the 'deep clean' that would satisfy my Mom. I have fixed everything about the apartment she has ever complained about. A sample of these tasks include mulching the front porch area, cleaning the tape off my windows (from the horrendous hurricane season last year), getting a hair cut, dusting. I am really trying to make the extra effort this time around, no excuses.

I found a restaurant that I think will make everyone happy. I purchased snacks and beverages that will make everyone happy. I also had to order and pick up a cake. My mom specifically requested that it say "Happy Birthday Mom, Dad, David, Holly, and Melanie". So I went to the local Publix bakery and asked how large the cake would have to be in order to fit that many names. The bakery lady suggested a half sheet, I almost fell over and asked if she could just write small and fit it all on a quarter sheet. A quarter sheet of cake to feed five people, after they have eaten a big italian meal. I will have an incredible amount of cake left over after tomorrow night, I don't even like cake, I wanted a strawberry pie for my birthday.

While sitting in my lasers class this afternoon, I made a list of everything that I still had to do before tomorrow. By the end of the class, I had filled an entire page of legal paper. I immediately left campus and started running my errands. My friend Rebecca came over for dinner and stayed for six extra hours and to help clean. I couldn't have finished without her. Yes, so now I am finished.

Now, I get to sit and relax for a few minutes before crashing. I have to be well rested enough to survive the day tomorrow. First order of the day is playing golf with my Dad. Then I get to drag him to a lab meeting that couldn't be rescheduled. We'll start meeting up with the rest of the family after the meeting. There is no point in my stressing about tomorrow anymore. I have done everything that I can do, now I can just sit back and see how everything plays out.
I am sure I have left many details out and not explained everything as I would have liked but I am tired, so now I am off scan some journals before bed.