So.  Yeah.  I’m 37 now.  One step closer to that magically delicious number of 40.

It was a damned good birthday.  Krystalle took me out to eat at Ted Peters Smoked Fish, a St. Petersburg institution that I thought I had never been to.  I’m not so sure of that anymore.  While I was eating the fish spread, in particular, kept making me think of my Grandpa Andres.  I didn’t have any actual memories of going there with him, but I know for a fact that he loved the restaurant.  When I called my Mother to ask if he had ever taken me there as a child she said it was certainly possible, so I think he may very well have done so.  Of course thinking of that set me on a trip down memory lane remembering the places here in St. Pete that mean something to me.  While we were eating at Ted Peters we were sitting almost directly across the street from Ten Pin Lanes – one of the places my Great Grandparents used to go bowling on a regular basis.  On the drive home we passed the church where I went to Boy Scouts and the high school my sister went to.  We passed by the nursing home where my Grandmother died and the Taco Bell we used to go to on Tuesday nights when we were dancing at Bennigan’s After Dark.  We passed the Middle School I went to where I really started to feel a passion for theater and the youth center I was sent to during the summer as a child where I learned lots of things about life that I’m not entirely sure my Mother sent me there to learn.

All these memories in the course of a 5 mile drive.

I do love this town.  If for no other reason than for the fact that I can go almost anywhere here and remember something that can put a smile on my face.

My evening was taken up by yet another performance of Night of the Living Dead, but it was pleasantly accompanied by some Pumpkin Ginger Cupcakes that Katrina made for me that were absolutely amazing.  I had four of them.  Maybe five?  I don’t remember and I don’t care.  They were my birthday present and between those cupcakes and lunch at Ted Peters I still probably took in fewer calories than I would have had I done the annual trip to Crazy Buffet.  After the show we stopped by Four Green Fields and I accepted one of the drinks that were offered to me as a birthday present (I kinda had to drive home and had the boy with me.  Not really a recipe for getting tipsy, yanno?).

Life is good.  I am happy and surrounded by amazing people.  You couldn’t really ask for much more on a bithday.