My Birthday

It was my birthday yesterday. And I have a confession to make: I woke up feeling really annoyed. I couldn’t put my finger on it. I couldn’t think of anything I really wanted to do. Nothing really sounded fun. Didn’t want to go out to eat. Didn’t want a party. I didn’t have a clue. Then I remembered something I heard a rabbi say years ago, “When you want to feel close to someone, give to them.”

And what struck me in that moment was that I didn’t want to feel close to someone, I wanted to feel close to everyone, the whole human race! The proverbial light bulb went off: What struck me was that this year, I didn’t want my birthday to be about me, I wanted it to be about who I could be. Some serious giving was in order, with no time to waste. Lucky for me, my pantry had boxes of cake mix and frosting in it. I’ve been a chronic cupcake baker since I was in third grade when I saw a photo of “cake cones” in a Betty Crocker cook book. OMG! It was so simple – and sooo amazing – bake cake batter in ice cream cones (the kind with the flat bottom) and then frost. J I blasted “Sugar Sugar” (my favorite song – and an obvious choice for a cupcake baking marathon) and got busy. I’m starting to feel in the birthday groove.. oh yeah… A couple of hours later, I had dozens of purple frosted cupcakes shimmering with sparkling edible sparkles. Now the fun part. My daughter, and my cup cake partner in crime (who by the way has taken my passion for decorating to an artistic level of epic proportion!) loaded up the car and headed to the bluff at Santa Monica beach, a place known for being a hang out for the homeless. She drove, I jumped out – handing out cupcakes at bus stops, as people were crossing the street - saying exactly what I felt, “It’s my birthday and I really wanted to celebrate with you.” I can’t put into words what the reactions were like. People’s face’s just lit up, they wished me the happiest birthday, gave me blessings, smiled, laughed – it was amazing… Finally we found a parking space. We carried our trays filled with cupcakes up and down the path until we passed out all except for two. Our two. We drove down to the beach, sat on the sand, lit birthday candles, enjoyed the purple frosted creations before riding bikes to Venice beach and back. It was the best birthday ever.