Sweet fifteen

Meelyn was born fifteen years ago today after twenty-one hours of labor and no drugs whatsoever except for a little bit of something that had no effect which made me frantically ask the nurse, "If I just had an injection, why do I still feel pain?" And she said, not looking up from the magazine she was casually thumbing through, "Oh, it doesn't really take away the pain, it just changes your perception of it." And I said tightly, "My perception is still that it reallyreallyreally hurts and that that injection may have been water for all the change I'm feeling," and she gave me an impatient look, just a milli-micro-tinymeter away from rolling her eyes, which, if she had been so foolish as to do that, I was going to launch myself off the bed and hurt her and later plead that I was not responsible for my actions due to the second-rate drugs that hospital offered, but anyway, where was I?

OH YES! Meelyn is fifteen years old today! And all I can say is that if everyone had a teenager like Meelyn, there wouldn't be such a fundamental distrust and irritation for that particular demographic.

She has spent the day fielding telephone calls, emails and cards in the mail and yesterday, even received a package of the most adorable heart-shaped, pink-frosted cookies from Cheryl & Co. from a good friend. Today is Daddy's day off, so he took us to get an ice cream (in lieu of a birthday cake -- Meelyn is not a cake kind of person and asked Nanny to make her a pecan pie for their mutual birthday celebration last Sunday) and tonight, she has requested Applebee's. All this plus no school, an episode of Top Chef to watch when we're usually doing composition and grammar, Survivor later this evening and a cessation of all spring cleaning duties for the day, have made this a very happy day for her and the whole family.

Happy birthday, sweetheart. You are such a good, sweet girl and we all love you so very, very much.