It’s been 30 years since I last celebrated a birthday with my family. I moved to the US in my 20s soon after college, so many special occasions and countless holidays with family have been lost. I decided to go visit for my 50th birthday. I also decided to take my son out of school for a week to come with us. It had been more than seven years since he had been to the island to visit with family. At 16 years of age, he may not have as much availability once he goes to college so now was the time.
During the first part of the visit, the weather was great, and we were having a great time with the family. It was nice to see my son really interact with my family for the first time. He was too young during our last visit and was not very engaging. We had planned a night out of dinner and dancing for my special day, but the weather took a drastic turn. A tropical storm was set to hit the island on that day, and the governor decided to enforce a “dry law.” I had never really heard of this before, but it basically prohibits business’s from selling alcohol for 24 hours. Therefore, most of them usually close down as early as 4 p.m.
Although I was disappointed, you can’t fight Mother Nature or City Hall. So we ordered pizza, bought a six-pack of beer before the liquor store closed, and watched TV while we waited for the storm to come and go. It wasn’t until morning that we realized the storm had not hit the island after all. With a sigh of relief, we planned on meeting at my brother’s house for dinner and birthday cake that day.
My birthday celebration what not was what I had originally planned, but it turned out to be even better. My son had the opportunity to experience a Latino celebration and that was the best gift I could have ever gotten for my landmark birthday. (BTW, if you haven’t experienced one, a Latino celebration involves a LOT of food, alcohol, LOUD music and conversation and TONS of laughter!)
