I am part of all that I have met.

Scott’s birthday was two weeks after Christmas on January 8^th. The quote is from Tennyson’s “Ulysses” and was on the front of Scott’s birthday card from Aunt Janet. Not my favorite poem, but a great quote. Leave it to Janet to find a great card like that.

I try not to skimp on Scott’s present since his birthday is so close after Christmas. I took him shopping for new white and red wine glasses. However, I caught him drinking red wine out of a white wine glass last night – for shame. Over the last few years, Scott has been educating himself on different wines, trying several varieties from different countries. Unfortunately, I do not share his love for wine since there are very few I find palatable. I truly wish I enjoyed wine more, but can’t help wrinkling up my nose at it and inevitably coughing after it goes down.

For his birthday, he had a group of friends come over to the house to play board games. Since his twin, Hunter (the brother formerly known as Jeff), moved to Ohio in 1995, Scott doesn’t play games as often as he would like. I wasn’t born with the competitive “game” gene, so it is very rare I play games with him at all. I have never played the card game he designs (nor will I ever). It’s not that I’m not a supportive wife. I can’t strategize and Scott’s competitive nature will not allow him to throw a game (except maybe tic-tac-toe with Aden), so I wind up losing all the time. Ergo, I do not play.

For Christmas, Hunter gave Scott a new game, 10 Days in Africa. He was so excited and had no one to play with him. In a moment of weakness, I took pity on him. Admittingly, the games were close, but I still lost twice. (Wanna know a secret? If you want to see Scott totally upset me, just watch us play a game of Kahuna. Watch Scott systematically obliterate every single one of my pieces from the board while I'm floundering to come up with a strategy. He’s just plain mean when he plays – no mercy.) Now you all know why I cross stitch and smock instead.

Scott fixed seafood for our guests. Now it’s not that I’m not the most perfect, doting wife and would have loved to fix dinner (can’t you hear the sarcasm), but he wanted seafood…I don’t like seafood. “What! Don’t like seafood, what’s wrong with you?” my Charleston friends exclaim. I know you are all wondering how I could have lived in the Mt. Pleasant area, with Shem Creek right there, and not like seafood. Well…I really don’t have a good answer. It could be that my head isn't screwed on quite right. It could be, perhaps, that my shoes are too tight. But I think that the most likely reason of all may be my stomach is two sizes too small. Over the years, Scott has been “Sam I Am”, trying to get me to like green eggs and ham. (Err, I mean fish.) He’s been unsuccessful thus far. If it swims in the ocean, river, lake, or stream, I refuse to eat it. On the nights Scott fixes fish for the kids, I try nonchalantly to fix a plate of leftovers from the fridge, hoping the kids won’t notice. Now that they are a little older, this trick doesn’t work so well anymore. “Mommy, why aren’t you having fish like us?” they ask. Try to come up with a good excuse for that one without turning your kids away from seafood.

Scott watched Sin City, given to him for his birthday by his brother. I, on the other hand, was in a different room. Not my kind of movie. Bless Scott’s heart. Even though I did not play games, drink wine, fix dinner, eat seafood, or watch a movie with him, he still had a good birthday. Well Jen, other than buy a few glasses, what did you do? Well…I let his friends come over, play games, and eat fish didn't I?