My five year reunion from college was this weekend. I did not attend. That's pretty much all I have to say about that. I'm happy with my decision.

My birthday was actually a pretty uneventful day. Suddenly Massachusetts went from winter to summer, and my birthday happened to be one of the first summer days of the year. We showed up at Harpoon Brewstock right as the doors were opening. We proceeded to spend the rest of the afternoon on hot pavement, with very little seabreeze for relief. I burned my left ring finger on the Sausage Guy's sausage-delivery table (which happened to be totally metal, suspended above a searing grill, in full 90-degree daylight -- NICE ONE). Luckily, my very thoughtful NB went to get me an icebath (from the keg water, of course), and the pain of the scalded finger subsequently receded into oblivion. I think the beers might have helped a little bit. All I have to say is, I don't know what I would have done if NB wasn't there. I was pissed when my finger was burned. Surely the afternoon would have been ruined, and that was quickly where it was headed until NB stepped in so valiantly.

Actually, to be honest, NB was pretty much the star of my entire birthday weekend. When I showed up to his place on Saturday morning, there was a beautiful arrangement of flowers sitting there waiting for me on his coffee table. He made me feel like an absolute goddess the entire weekend. And he did not got unrewarded...

Sunday we awoke to blistering heat in his apartement, and he even made me breakfast. We did our own thing for a couple hours, and then decided that we wanted to play tennis. So we took the train back up to my place, gathered the necessary accessories, and headed down to the public courts at the Willows. After fifteen minutes, he was trying to give me the out (I think I was sweating after about two seconds), saying "Just let me know when you want to head out, and we'll go," to which my response was, "Are you kidding me? I'm just warming up!!!" Suffice it to say, we played for almost an hour.

I sweated my ass off, and a day later it was difficult to squeeze a person's hand in greeting, but it was all worth it. We had SO MUCH FUN. I realized that I need to get myself to a batting cage to work on my hand-eye coordination (really, I suck). I really was in so much pain in my right forearm yesterday, but it was totally worth it. I loved how we found a groove of who was serving to whom. I love how I was so sweaty and un-hot and yet he still wanted to take all my clothes off before dinner.

And I especially love how he sat through dinner with (almost) my entire family, and a lot of my extended family, and he handled himself beautifully. My neighbor told me later how she got a "great vibe" from him. Then she explained to me how she really didn't get a great vibe from other men that I might have introduced her to, at one point or another. She made a point to reinforce the un-great vibe that she happened to get from another person. And as much as I knew how she meant well (believe me, I know exactly what she meant), and as much as I wanted to defend that one un-great vibe, I was secretly pleased beyond all pleasing that she recognized what I've pretty much known all along.

It's funny how those little bits of reinforcement can make you just that much more secure in what you never doubted in the first place. Here's a woman who I respect, who's almost forty years my elder and knows a whole lot about life. And there she goes telling me I'm finally doing a good job living it. All I have to say is, it's a good feeling...