Look, it's 7:17. Traci always liked to look up and note the time if it was 7:17. Its a math geek thing. Because Traci and I met in August, my birthday was the first one we celebrated together. I don't remember what Traci did for me, but I do remember she set the bar realllllllyy high. That July, Traci was taking her last calculus class. She was bummed out that she had an exam on her birthday and that we couldn't take the day and do something fun because she really needed the time to study. So, I decided I would bring the birthday celebration to her. I baked her a strawberry cake parked my car at CSUSB, and walked, cake in hand, to the math building where I thought she would be studying with her classmate. I still remember how surprised she was. And the cake even turned out edible.
Today was better than I thought it might have been. I guess I'm still dealing with shock because I really don't feel much of anything yet. When I got home, my mom and sister-in-law were watching the girls play at the park. I turned on the oven, pulled the funfetti cake mix and strawberry frosting and began baking Traci's cake.Then a short trip to Papa John's and we were having our birthday celebration. The adults had pizza with everything on it, the kids had salami and cheese(yes papa johns has salami on the menu and it is delicious) Then Autumn led us in a wonderful rendition of "happy birthday." She was a little apprehensive about blowing out 28 invisible candles until aunty Val offered to help. A deep breath and a couple of knife slices later and we were all enjoying our cake. I don't know if I will make this a tradition or not, but it was nice for this time.
Think Globally Act Locally
12 years ago
3 Responses to "7:17"
I'm glad that you had a good day and good memories today. We were also thinking of Traci and your family today! :) Thanks for sharing!
Thank you for this post.
I can just picture Traci being so happy that you would bring a cake to her in class-- how sweet that was of you! We threw a surprise b-day party for Traci one year and boy was she surprised. We totally got her! It was so easy to do things like that for Traci because she was such a gracious, humble person. I love that you made a cake yesterday and had Autumn blow out pretend candles. I think it is a wonderful tradition!
Yeah, her surprise birthday party was awesome! I was in charge of keeping her busy and bringing her to the party. She kinda seemed to be in a bad or wierd mood most of the day, probably because we werent doing anything really special yet, I just remember sitting in the mall with her eating some crappy mall food, actually running into an old middle school counselor(who by the way barely remembered me, and chatted to Traci like they were old buddies forever!!) and making fun of people around us. I seriously miss her. Everything was so much more fun with her around. She did always make birthdays fun, huh?
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