Yesterday
our daughter had her forty-seventh birthday.
How ridiculous!
How could that be?
I am her father!
How old does that not make me feel? I,
who am what I have always been throughout
my adult life -- a steady forty(ish). How could
she dare be older than yours truly?
We celebrated at a local Chinese restaurant.
Recently opened, and so of unknown quality,
it proved a great success. Eight of us shared
a Banquet item from the menu.
(My first dalliance with what
has always seemed a little self-
indulgent in the past.)
Time to indulge the self, I thought. And did
so with a will.
Furthermore, there was the little matter of
the chopsticks. I have never wielded them
with serious intent before. Last night I did.
Now, putting this in context, I
am at the stage of having problems with
a knife and fork. I had none with the sticks.
Two firsts in a single evening then...
How's that for forty(ish)?
Not so much a poem, more like chopped-up prose... well, it was a heavy night.
The photograph shows the birthday girl. The old git trying to get rid of the paparazzi is her father.
19 comments:
Hilarious Dave! Yes, who's counting! That's right! How's that making it on me,too! Want to know a secret? My eldest, Adura, a daughter celebrated her 40th not many months ago. Yeah! who's counting!
Hank
I empathize, having two children in their forties. My youngest (only in her 30s) used to say to me, "Sure you only look forty but you have looked forty for the last thirty years". And that was fifteen years ago.
haha....how can she be older than you! how dare her...smiles. ah, my boys just started double digits this year and that made me feel old...i love chopsticks, luckily i learned so i wont go hungry....chinese is my oldest's fav food...so that would def be his birthday choice....
happy birthday to your daughter...
haha..what a lovely pic and belated happy birthday to her.. cool on the success with the chopsticks..love eating with them when i have enough time only..ha..smiles..i'm def. better with knife and fork..
Fun, ordinary photo -- a plain capture of the moment! Love it.
But did you intentionally cut the head off the son-in-law to the right? Passive-aggressive or aggressive-aggressive? ;-0
Good chopped up prose or bad poetry! ;-)
And is that Chinese baijiu you are reaching for?
And I am sure you are not what you have "always been" even year by year -- though our brains lie to us about that -- including about our age. But the, that is your point, ain't it mate.
I've heard them all before. We are an uncomfortable lot for you folks. In order to keep your imagined universe making sense, you have to explain us away -- have to!
...21 for me is quite too old already... what more when it turns 22 on April... for sure another long thought-process & adaptation... poor us we can only count the digits.... but how good are we when it comes to mapping the history into our skin as we age...? well, being young is always an attitude... belated happy birthday to your daughter... smiles...
When one of my sons became over 30 I don't mind their age. Your warm humor makes me smile, Dave.
Chopped up prose works for me! Happy Birthday to your 'girl.'
(my oldest is going to be 53 this year .. talk about sticker shock)
It's a scary thought Dave...my eldest grandgirl was 17 this week...ooooops!!
Whose counting indeed when we are happily eating with chopsticks ~ Hate to think of my children's ages, but no one yet is near 30, smiles ~
Kelvin, you are far too young to think of being old ~
Oh how you have made me laugh!
Reading this wonderful post has raised my spirits no end...thank you so much, Dave!
"The old git trying to get rid of the paparazzi" bit at the end was priceless...haha:D
And I so relate to your words: "How dare she be older than yours truly?"
That is EXACTLY how I feel when I'm with my twenty-year-old son...you see, I still feel sixteen! (How sad is that?!)
I am so glad you all had such a good evening!:)
Wonderful heartwarming post. A belated (and possibly meaningless) Happy Birthday to your girl. This age thing gets scary from time to time - I was never a good aunt and now I am a great-aunt.
What better time to start banqueting, and congratulations on the chopsticks front. Eating with them is one thing, but I have watched people cooking with them in awe and wonder.
Dave, we never count, we only celebrate. Your daughter is beautiful; and it was nice to see a picture (half picture) of you too.
I am not a fan of chopsticks. It takes too long to eat. LOL. (Though my daughters are Korean, and my grandchildren come by using chopsticks naturally!)
A very enjoyable post, Dave.
oh I know!
Time to indulge the self is our consolation prize on this escalator that . . . um, ends at some mysterious point.
ALOHA from Honolulu
Comfort Spiral
~ > < } } ( ° > <3
Whooops, that last paragraph came from something else, dorry. Was not meant fir you. Came back to see if you replied -- nope.
Hank
Congrats -- and right, no one's counting.
DCW
Hi A warm welcome to you. I didn't say I've LOOKED 40, only that I've FELT it! I wish!
Thanks for your comment.
Brian
Much thanks for the comment and for your good wishes.
Claudia
@twas but a small thing, but I was proud of my chopstick success - small things add up at this time of life!
Sabio
Chinese what? Nar, I was trying to waft the paparazzi away, want I?
Yeah, it was partly the point.
Kelvin
but how good are we when it comes to mapping the history into our skin as we age...?
Like this point you make. Thanks a lot for it.
haricot
Thanks for this. Good to know.
Helen
Thanks and thanks again! Congrats on yours.
Gerry
Getting there! Enjoy!
Grace
Best not to think too closely. I know my dad found it hard to get his head round the fact of having a son who had retired.
Ygraine
That need not be sad, but a reason for rejoicing. It is strange, though, what the brain does with relative ages. Thanks for your comments.
Elephant's Child
Thank you SO much for your generous comments and for your warm wishes for Angela.
(Incidentally, I don't know what to do when visiting you now. It seems not to be letting me in. Says you haven't shared anything with me!)(It'll be my pudding brain, of course!)
Mary
Thanks for for your thoughts. Much appreciated.
Clodia
So glad you agree! Thanks.
Dave, I don't know quite what the problem is. I have checked my settings and it is still open to anyone. A temporary glitch I hope.
LOL! I practically live on Asian food -- Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, and my favorite, Indian.
To this day I use a fork and knife with everything. Just can't handle chopsticks.
Madeleine
Sounds like me - including the chopsticks until last Friday...
Strange!
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