I find it amazing how three days away from the blog can make my writing muscles feel rusty and sore from disuse.  Saturday night I threw myself a birthday party and so spent a vast portion of the weekend either preparing for it or recovering from it (mostly in a cleaning sense, as I didn’t actually have a thing to drink at my own birthday party.  A fact that made my mother proud but one you wouldn’t readily assume from the stack of beer bottles sitting by my front door).

It was a fantastically fun party.  In the beginning, while I was waiting for friends to arrive and trying to keep the few early-arrivers entertained (early-arrivers, please do not feel minimized, I value you all!), I got several messages from friends saying that they weren’t going to be able to attend.  In my head I went into a dark place where I was universally unloved and would be left alone at the end of the evening with several dozen cupcakes, a quart of curry dip and an large homemade veggie tray.  Thankfully, just as that fantasy was starting to gain traction, friends started to roll in and suddenly I was awash in an embarrassment of friendship riches.

One interesting thing I observed about the party was how so many of the people in attendance were not people I’ve celebrated my birthday with before.  Many of the friends who I’ve considered to be my core, family-away-from-family during my years in Philly were not able to attend because of moves, rapidly upcoming weddings, previously scheduled trips and other life events.  There’s part of me that feels a little wistful that those people aren’t able to be as present as they once were, but another part that feels amazingly blessed that so many really wonderful, interesting and dynamic people continue to travel into my life (I’m especially grateful for this guy).

In an email to one of the old friends today, I mentioned to her how I was struggling a little to adjust to all the changes that have hit the scene over the course of the last year.  She reminded me of a truth, which is that I have nothing to worry about because “we’re all bound together in heart and spirit.”

May you all have an abundance of friends, both the ones you see regularly as well as the ones who aren’t always able to be present but who are bound to you by love and history.

*Believe it or not, I didn’t get my camera out even once during the party.  However, the talented Stellargirl brought along her envy-worthy camera and snapped a few shots here and there.  I don’t exactly know how she did it, but she even to make my cluttered kitchen look charming and interesting.