How do you celebrate your birthday?

Do you celebrate your birthday any darned way you want to?  It IS your day so I suppose if it falls on a weekend and it's a bright, sunny, warm-for-March Michigan day then why not spend the day having pies thrown in your face? I mean, really, why not?

 We were strolling down to James Brandess' studio for PH's final sitting.  Turning the corner we were immediately and quite excitedly invited to throw a pie into a young woman's face.  

 Now, let's get this straight right here.  I don't do things like this.  To myself or anyone else.  But the young lady was adamant that I be the first.  Just my luck to be there at that moment, I guess.
She was dressed in a bathing cap, heavy duty goggles, a rain poncho and washable clothes.  It was her birthday that day and the ONLY way she wanted to celebrate her day was to have pies thrown in her face with the throwers donating to one of two local charities.  I tried to get PH to do it.  He agreed to hold my camera and sweater but wasn't going to to the deed.   Really, this was hard for me but the recipient of the whipping cream pies was having so much fun with this I just had to go with her wishes.  As James Brandess later said, "How often do you get a chance like that?"

So.  I did it. 

  After I did the toss, the crowd came forward. The collection jar filled as the afternoon went on. A little while later I stepped out of the studio to check on her.  The throwers had begun to draw faces on the bottom of the paper plates so that when the pie was pushed against her face, the smiley face drawn on the bottom was showing. Children, adults, lots of laughter, mimosas and good feeling, music and birthday wishes on a street corner.

 Now THIS is how people OUR age celebrate their birthdays.  Friends Richard and Marilyn were sharing birthdays just two days apart and we met them after PH's sitting for dinner.  When we get together we can't talk fast enough about everything.  Sometimes we even have to tell each other "time out, it's my turn" or something like that.  Rousing talks about everything so thank goodness we are all on the same page.  This day we were placing our bets on who was going to win Super Tuesday primaries and ultimately who was going to win the election in November.

We ate our pies.