Thank you all for your well wishes everyone. I appreciate it.
Sadly, there's not much to report as to my actual day. No two day parties. I had to work, and since my hours have been a bit lean lately (along with the paychecks), I needed to go in. This kept me from seeing my daughter, who is staying with my mom this weekend. I'll see her tomorrow morning.
I went in early, as I usually do because of the trains, and wound up voluntarily taking over this one guy's 3 pm tour in order to keep my mind occupied. I took my shrink's advice and told my tours it was my birthday. I did better on tips yesterday than I had the past week combined. There was a group of business professors from Northwestern University on the 6 pm. They really liked me, but, DAMN, academics are terrible tippers (myself excluded). Maybe they figured that since I have a doctorate I don't need the tips. Cheapskates. But I might use the tip money to finally buy myself a present.
I did have one of my favorite captains for all three rides, and the deckhand is a very funny and nice guy. The lake became progressively choppy as the night wore on, so we had more wild rides. The waves weren't as big as last Sunday, though, when safety concerns became paramount and we had to get off the lake.
One girl at work, Jessica, started telling the customers it was my birthday, too, so I had plenty of well-wishes. If I didn't have to take that damn train back I would have gone to "The Goat" for a drink or two with my co-workers (The Goat is the infamous Billy Goat's just off of lower Michigan avenue).
It was a beautiful September day, just like today is shaping up to be. I'll be getting ready to go in again, as I will tomorrow.
Thanks again for remembering, girls. While I might have not had you around in person, you were certainly there in spirit.
Love always,
Mere
You can get anything you want at Alice's restaurant.