Today is my birthday.
It started out great. I woke up and reached for my phone to check the weather and in my inbox was an email wishing me Happy Birthday from a gentleman I met at a writers group couple of months ago and have been seeing socially recently.

But then the day wore on and became no different than any other year. I received no birthday wishes from anyone else. Not parents, not grandparents, not my children. Not even my co-workers, despite the fact that yesterday I actually said, "Tomorrow is my birthday." (Note: My therapist said I should drop the hint to my co-workers because they celebrate everyone's birthday in the office except mine. He said it was likely they didn't know when my birthday was, despite the fact that it's on all the HR forms. So I dropped the hint and, guess what? Nothing per usual.)

Anyway, I really like the guy who sent me the email. I know I'm not supposed to go after older men, he's 23 years my senior, but dammit, he is the only one who pays any attention to me. Who wouldn't like that?

He's a great conversationalist and we have a lot in common. We can talk for hours about botany, linguists, Celtic history, gourmet cooking, wines, and yes, writing, since that's how we met. It makes me want to tell society where they can shove their rumors of Oedipus complex and just go after the guy.

We are having dinner together next week. So far I've been careful about not openly flirting. Now, I'm thinking, low cut blouse, here I come, and actually engaging in a little flirting. Is there any reason not to persue a relationship with the only one who pays any attention to you?