I was not looking forward to marking a half century on this earth. Nevertheless, yesterday I had the best birthday I can ever remember celebrating.

About 8am, I took a long walk through Fort Greene Park with Sophie (dogs are allowed off-leash before 9am). Then we stopped at the Urban Glass gallery, which was featured on a recent Queer Eye. Everyone in the shop said to Sophie, "Hi there little Lassie!", so we felt right at home. From the gallery, I watched a pair finish blowing a vessel and put it in the kiln. In the gallery, I was so inspired by the lampwork the artists are doing there, that I came back to Jolie's place and signed up for a bead-making class at Glass FX this fall.

Then my groom and I took it really easy for the rest of the day – without contest, yesterday was the most guiltless day of total hedonism I've ever enjoyed.

Jolie came back from work, and we went to a nearby French restaurant. Earlier, Brad had said it had to be a French restaurant, and Jolie scoffed – I didn't even notice or question why.

After we ordered, Brad and Jolie gave me a box. Inside was a long envelope. I expected tickets to a Broadway show, and wondered which they thought I would want to see. But inside the envelope was this wonderful card using a vintage poster and some deft photoshop work to incorporate the nickname a Japanese nanny had given me before I'd turned 2. Since the age of 11, knowing nothing of French, I have spelled this name that my family calls me as "Nicé"*:



I took French in high school, but corrupted it with Spanish in college. So it took me a few minutes to understand the meaning of the card: Brad and I are off to France in 3 months!

[Clarification 09.02.04: I used an acute accent when spelling my nickname because I didn't know French – the acute accent on the "e" makes it a long "a" sound in French, but my family actually pronounces my nickname "Nee-See". Since age 11, I've been using an accent mark to simply signal that it should be said with 2 syllables – that the nickname doesn't rhyme with "ice" (like the Unix command) or "niece". I suppose I should consider spelling it "Nici". Maybe.]