Forty is fun. Other things, not so much.

You would think that any week that starts out with a birthday would be pretty damned cool... and actually, Monday really was. 

Ivan spoiled me with an intimate dinner at our new favorite restaurant, Yuki... which just happens to have the best sushi outside of Atlanta.  Sushi Mio will always have our heart, but this is our new treat.

Just look what the chef did for me when he found out it was my birthday:

Is that not kickass???  Just one reason we love this place.  The other is that Ivan always looks so blissfully happy after eating one of their huge oversized pieces of nigiri (maguro is his favorite, don't let him say otherwise).  The other, other reason is because of things like this:

Possibly the coolest dragon roll ever.

Of course, while we were at the restaurant, Ivan made me open my presents... which included the entire 4-volume set of the Paris Review Interviews.  I was stunned.  I had no idea what I was holding at first.  He said it was to inspire me to believe in my writing. 

Then he made me cry with my next present:

See, it's a mommy, and she's holding her tummy... it's called "Cherish - awaiting a miracle."  It's resin cast from an original woodcarving by Susan Lordi of Willow Tree . I sniffled and teared all through dinner.

After that, he gave me chocolate, which made up for it.

In other news, one of the mothers on my birth board passed away, apparently on my birthday.  Found out today (Tuesday).

She had been diagnosed with ovarian cancer when she was about 18 weeks pregnant.  On December 28th, she delivered her son, Harrison, at 25 weeks' gestation... just over the viability range.  They needed to deliver him as early as they could so she could be treated with chemotherapy and a complete hysterectomy.

Harrison is beginning to thrive.  Michelle, sadly, began to complain of headaches, and a lesion on her brain was biopsied.  She saw her son in the NICU, went to take a nap, and her husband snuggled down with her.

At some point, she died in her sleep.

Her husband signed onto our birth board to let us know.  The women have been a wreck.  Present company included.

One of our ladies is hoping to set up a foundation for Michelle's medical bills and Harrison's care.

Sometimes people restore my faith in all of us.  From big bad things like Haiti to little bad things like reaching out to a complete stranger whose wife was part of "us" for a short period of time, we are capable of great, good things.