~ 4 Freakin’ 7 ~

My Captain turned 47 today.

Was that a secret?  Did he not want me to share that?  I wonder if men are like women, trying to ignore the aging process?

Welp, too late.  Cat’s out of the bag.  You have to expect that when you marry an open book like me.  But I’m no short story, I’m like a big honking tome of War and Peace, gaping open in a shop window on a crazy busy street, in the spotlight, under a microscope.  And maybe under a disco ball.  With a neon sign flashing.

That’s what he married.

Do you pity him?  Don’t.  I’m a colorful book, entertaining to read.  So he’s got that going for him.

He was working at the firestation for 24 hours today (48 straight, if he gets hired on overtime tomorrow) and so I called his shift….Joe…we love Joe…a few days ahead and said, “Let’s do something!”

So Joe and Brett and Tom and the shift put together a wonderful dinner with cake and fun and love, and opened their table up to me and the kids as well.

It’s no small thing to be invited into the inner sanction of a fireshift.  They are tight.  They have a deep knowledge and trust of each other born of getting through countless high stress, life-or-death situations together.  And if you aren’t with them for all of that, well, you tend to remain on the outside.

I might have a slight step or two in farther than other non-shift people from my days volunteering as a medic, but I’m still on the outside.  No doubt about that.

So it’s with huge amounts of gratitude that my kids and I joined them during My Captain’s birthday dinner with the shift.

We brought home-made birthday cards and candles for the Boston Cream Cake the shift had bought.  Other than that, the shift did everything.

There is nothing as special as being validated by the people in your life.  I don’t care how old you are.

And there is nothing more beautiful than watching someone you love with all of your heart bask in that validation.

Validation with a side of Boston Creme Cake.  Does it get any better?  I think not.