A Birthday or a Birthday Season? | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Kathy Manos Penn is a native of the “Big Apple,” who settled in the “Peach City” – Atlanta. A former English teacher now happily retired from a corporate career in communications, she writes a weekly column for the Dunwoody Crier. Read her blogs and purchase her book, “The Ink Penn: Celebrating the Magic in the Everyday” on her website theinkpenn.com.

    That seems an easy choice. I'm a firm believer in the birthday season. Long ago, but not far away, a co-worker introduced me to the concept of the birthday season. The season stretches from the moment you receive the first card, email, phone call, lunch, dinner or gift all the way until the very last of those occurrences. Who wouldn't like this concept?

    Last year, I received the first card from a former co-worker at least two weeks before my birthday. At that point, my husband stated somewhat indignantly, "The season doesn't start for at least another week!" By ten days out, though, he had started giving me a card a day. On two days, the cards were accompanied by flowers, and on several days, dessert.

    As I started up the stairs to my office one day, I was greeted by a series of cards arranged on the steps - from my husband and the four-legged children. And, my girlfriend who started the season sent me a second card and called me! Now, that's the spirit.

    The season continued with dinner and a gift from one sister, and the arrival of a gift from the out-of-town sister, who was born exactly four years after me on the same date. My husband and I went out to dinner two nights, and I had one lunch out with a girlfriend who has a birthday just a few days after mine. If you're on Facebook, you know there's a flurry of birthday greetings on and around the actual date, always fun to read.

    While visiting a neighborhood shop a few days after my birthday, my husband picked up another gift and explained the birthday season concept to the owner. That prompted her to send him home with a complimentary candle for who else? The birthday girl. The season began to wind down after the official date passed, but there was yet another dessert waiting in the fridge and lunch with two more girlfriends.

    The great thing about celebrating a birthday season is that I always have the perfect response when someone says, "Oh, I'm sorry your card will be late" or "Can we schedule your birthday lunch in a few weeks?" The answer? "No worries; that just makes the season last longer."

    As I said in my thank you to all my Facebook buds, in the spirit of Yogi Berra, the birthday season "ain't over 'til it's over." Isn't that the way it should be?