Gifts of good fortune

I prefer uneventful AOBs (anniversaries of birth). While I mostly got what I wanted in that regard, I was also the recipient of a few small gifts of good fortune that made for a nice twist on an otherwise normal day.

First came the heat. My desk is right under an air duct and has been a very cold place to sit. We measured it with an infrared thermometer. Sixty-one degrees. I've had to wear a sweater every day since before it even got cold outside. Today, as if granting me some small reprieve, they turned the heat on in our building. Finally I can sit and work without shivering or blowing my runny nose. It is a welcome gift.

Next came the weather. There have been some miserably chilly days of late, and I was pleased to walk outside to a pleasantly warm day, likely the last over-seventy day we get for a bit. It was nice for mother nature to have let-up briefly for me.

Then came lunch. We intended to hit the newly opened OKC Cheesecake Factory, but the place was packed. So we went to the nearby Elephant Bar, which comes highly recommended, instead. I ordered myself the very pleasing-to-the-eye 11-oz New York Strip. Unfortunately, I instead received the 8-oz New York Strip sandwich. Okay, so not as much steak, but they comped the meal for their error, so I got what amounted to be a VERY tasty steak for free. A gift of good fortune wrapped in slight misfortune. One of the best kinds of unexpected gifts to get. But as though that weren't enough, having gotten wind of the fact that it was my birthday, the waiter brought me a (also free) strawberry sundae. And not only is strawberry one of my top-five favorite flavors, but this particular strawberry dessert was exTREMEly delicious. Freakin yummy, in fact. I savor it even now.

Of course, that all might seem like enough, but then a co-worker treated me to an also very tasty strawberry slushy from an Asian place that specializes in such things (slushies, shakes, slurpies). I might actually be all strawberried-out, if you can believe that. But I am thankful to have had the good fortunate to have received these gifts on this day. Sort of takes the edge off getting older in a way that no material gift can. And while I've gotten plenty of material gifts thus far this week, it will likely be these abstract gifts I remember the most in years to come.