Mitchmas (28) Part 1: The People In Your Corner
I woke up on my 28th birthday, at 6:00 a.m. After greeting our cat Charlie and saying good morning to Paige, I got ready for work. As I walked out of our apartment, I opened the Starbucks app and ordered my summer drink (a vanilla sweet cream cold brew). Usually, I get a Grande, but because it was free, I got a Venti. When I got to work, I got out of my car and pulled up the time clock app on my phone, so that I could clock in as soon as I was in the building. I put my coffee on the top of my car, where I always do, but because it was a bigger size, it was a little more weight than I was used to, and I didn’t balance it right. As my coffee poured down my car, a coworker yelled, “Merry Mitchmas!”
I picked Paige up from work at 4:15, and when she saw my back car window, mocking me, she laughed and bought me some replacement coffee. At around 5:45, Paige and I got dressed up and drove down to Barnes & Noble. Now, because I do so much writing, I can't read anymore. What I mean is, if I'm reading something that I personally have not written, I feel like I'm being lazy because I “should” be editing. When I was a kid, my neighbor Greg got me into Harry Potter, but Goblet of Fire was too long and a little too political for my third-grade self to wrap his head around. When Paige and I started dating and I told her I only got through year three (the third book), she convinced me to try again, and by October of ‘23, I had listened to all seven on Libby. Ever since then, I have listened to countless books in the car, on my way to and from work. Despite this, I do want to start getting books that I've read in physical copies to build a collection.
Paige ended up getting me two books that I've read before. All Good People Here, By Ashley Flowers, and Dracula. What's really cool about my Dracula book is, Barnes & Noble has a line of specialty prints of books called Barnes & Noble exclusives, and they can only be described as bible style bindings. They're huge books and they're very ornate. Barnes & Noble’s Dracula is a bright red, and the edge of the pages are lined with black.
Another bible-style binding that they have, though it's not necessarily a Barnes and Noble exclusive, is Les Mis. Everyone who was cast in the 2012 adaptation (Hugh Jackman, Anne Hathaway, Eddie Redmayne, etc.) has a theater background, except for Russell Crowe. So while his singing in the movie isn't terrible, in comparison to everyone else, it's not great. While I was trying to decide what bible-style book I was going to get, a couple of guys walked in and made comments about how cool these books looked, and I laughed at a couple of their jokes. They saw Les Mis, and one guy said to the other, “Does this sing if you open it?”
Before I could stop myself, I said, “Yeah, but it's just Russell Crowe!” Instant best friends.
After we bought the books and a candle, we went to Bravo, which was in the same parking lot as the Barnes & Noble. Noah and the rest of my family were in attendance. After dinner, we went back to my parents’ house, and the boys went back to Ryan's apartment to get his new cat, Alfie. I opened presents, thanked everyone, had ice cream cake, tried to get our family cat Sammie used to Alfie, and just enjoyed everyone's company.
Since Mitchmas (24), I have done multiple part stories about my birthday. Part 1 is almost always this exact installment. It's about my family going to dinner with Noah (and in later years, Paige), and going to my parents’ house afterwards. While this installment is in and of itself repetitive, over the years, the lesson has become more concentrated. Let me explain.
A few weeks before my family and Noah went to dinner in part one of Mitchmas (24), I broke up with my crazy ex-girlfriend, and during the dinner, I was in the middle of getting a restraining order. The entirety of Mitchmas (25) was built around a date that I had right before my birthday, that bled into the celebrations, and that led my ”sisters” to convince me to work on myself before I started dating again. Since both of those examples are about failed relationships, it is not lost on me that being in a stable relationship with Paige is the reason for the last three Mitchmaes being calm. But my point is, Mitchmas has become less connected to my overarching life story and more about celebrating with friends and family. And honestly, isn't that what it's all about?
To Be Continued…
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