8/28/2006 - Happy Birthday Arwen!

Today was Arwen's birthday as well as our first days back at work. His office is downtown, and I'm working from home in our spare "bedroom" (which is too small to fit a double bed in it!). My colleague, Kelly, and I are adjusting to working at a distance rather than sitting across the table from each other. Arwen set us up with Skype, a computer phone service that provides unlimited free calls throughout the US. So Kelly and I can talk all day for free. Pretty cool!

Today was a tough one for me. I'm not feeling too good. Our place seems full of smells that nauseate me. I'm hungry but when I open the refrigerator everything is repulsive. I'm tired, have a little bit of a headache, and generally just feel like crap. This is all I've managed to eat today:

• 1/4 box saltines
• 5 slices hard cheese
• hot turkey & gouda sandwich
• 1/4 pint vanilla ice cream (I'm not proud)

I feel bad because it's Arwen's birthday and I wish I had more energy in me to bake him a cake or something. My friend Andye reminded me this weekend, however, that baking is an art form at this altitude. I'm definitely not up to that challenge, and even if I were Arwen would just be miffed I made him something fattening to eat.

I asked him what he'd like for dinner and to my horror he asked for pasta with pesto. "You know, just something simple and healthy." How about something that doesn't make me gag? The thought of all that garlic made my head swim. So I suggested, "I can either give you a birthday massage or cook you a birthday meal, but I don't have both in me tonight." With his back still a little tender from the move, he thankfully opted for the massage.

We went out for dinner to Swing Thai and took his presents and cards with us for him to open. The meal was good - the first decent thing I had to eat all day - and I'm sure the peanut was glad to get some veggies, noodles and tofu. After dinner, Arwen opened his presents and cards. He got several very sweet cards, some cash, a physics book, the newest Red Hot Chili Peppers cd (that was from the peanut) and a tshirt from one of his favorite restaurants in Houston called The Hobbit Cafe. It has a picture of Arwen the elf on the front!

After he opened his presents, Arwen said the sweetest thing.
"This is the best birthday ever."
"Yeah, right," I replied, thinking again about that cake I didn't bake him.
"No seriously," he said earnestly. "I'm going to be a daddy. And I'm sitting here with my best girl. My only girl."

I won't lie. It made me cry. But maybe it's just the hormones talkin.