Happy Birthday, C.J.

Today is C.J.'s birthday. He has an exam tomorrow so we didn't do much to celebrate. We stayed home, and he studied most of the time. Another day in the glamorous life of a med student.

As if studying on your birthday isn't nerdy enough, he asked for a Caribbean bird book and binoculars for his birthday. He likes to sit on the front porch and watch the wildlife.

Last year we went to Big Bend with our friend Stephanie Z. who is a bird fanatic. We made fun of her a lot for her birdwatching obsession. And then she met a guy at the park who was a serious bird watcher and had all these books with check marks by the birds he'd seen. They were instantly bonded by their love for birds.

We thought it was hilarious, but who's laughing now? Stephanie, we owe you an apology. We already identified one bird today - the tropical mockingbird. Similar to what we have at home. Gray on top with a white belly and long tail. And it was fun. I'll admit.

To balance out this nerdy gift I also got him a machete. You can't be a man on this island without one, apparently. Grenadians use the machete (aka cutlass) as the all-purpose tool.

If it can't be done with a machete then forget about. They whack brush and chop wood and cut up coconut and everything else with these big knives. It is very common to see men walking along the side of the road with one in hand.

Not that C.J. does any of those things or has any reason to have one. But if you want to see a grown man get excited like he's 10 years old again, give him an over-sized knife.

Within minutes of opening his gift, C.J. was downstairs with our neighbor Chris whacking a banana tree in the backyard. You can picture it now, can't you?

He whacked until his forearm got sore, which didn't take long since he spends most of his time in a lecture hall. Before coming back to the books, he showed it off to a few other male neighbors who seemed equally impressed. It must be an XY thing, I don't get it.

This afternoon he got a little nap in and then I made tacos for dinner, his favorite. This evening I had all the neighbors over for a quick birthday celebration with cake and ice cream. Here's C.J. pretending he's going to cut his cake with his new toy.

Now he's back to studying. Even though it wasn't the most action packed, at least his birthday was on a Sunday this year so he didn't have to go to class. It rained most of the day so it was a good day to stay inside.

So another year gone by, happy birthday sweetheart! Happy bird watching and brush whacking. I love you.