I wrote 2,177 words about my thoughts on my birthday, with only two years left in my 40s [Self-Care Diary Day 10]

Today, I turned 48.

I think this every year on my birthday, but I want to go to a shop that says "Special service for those having a birthday today!" but I never have the chance. In the first place, there aren't that many shops like that near my house. And it would be weird to go out into town just to get a birthday service. If that's the case, I'll just write a note at home. So, I'm writing a note.

Cosmetics and a melon arrived from my mother back home. My mother was, well, a toxic parent who would be embarrassing to show anyone, but I'll make full use of that as material for my creative work, and if anything,
I can assert that no one beats her as a cautionary taleso I think I have no choice but to call it even, but even so, my mother still treats me like a child. I think.

I cursed inwardly, and I just can't bring myself to send a cute LINE message like "Thanks for the melon (melon emoji)" to her. I think I'm not being honest, but in this regard, I'm still a child.

I feel like I'm going to end up talking about my mother, so I'll stop here.
Whether I'll write about that on another occasion... it takes courage to expose my hang-ups.

I've had a cold for about three days. Come to think of it, why do we say we "pull" (hiku) a cold in Japanese? There's no such thing as "becoming" a cold, but the natural way to say it in Japanese is "hiku." Is a cold something you pull from somewhere? Since it starts due to your own carelessness, maybe we use "hiku," which has a scent of self-responsibility? A cold-sufferer. A detective (okappiki). A bit different (completely different).

Back to the topic.

I caught a cold. It's mostly healed now, but I still have a nasal voice. It's persistent.
The medicine I got at the hospital when I had COVID around May this year seemed to cover most cold symptoms, so I took it a few times. I don't think it was effective, but I was able to go to work. Aren't I super diligent? Looking back on it now, I want to praise myself to the skies.
The cold definitely came from the kids. In my mind, I have this image of pulling the cold from the kids and having it transfer to me.
I've heard that "a cold heals if you pass it to someone else," but I just thought of a story where if someone pulls it from you and peels the cold off your body, you get better, but the person who pulled it gets the cold. It's a bit lonely, like the Crying Red Ogre.

As for the cold symptoms, the headache and sore throat are gone, but I have a lot of coughing in the middle of the night.
I'm worried if it might be pneumonia with a name that sounds like a Maiko-san modified like a robot from Laputa shooting beams from her eyes, but since I have such an appetite and can write notes, it's probably not. Huh? It's Mycoplasma pneumonia. Doesn't it have that image? Doesn't it sound like it would shoot beams? Just me?

My husband and children gave me a birthday present.

It seems my husband remembered me always saying "my legs are tired" (or maybe I was just that noisy about it). I'm happy, so I used it right away.

My calves... the swelling in my legs... ah... (ascension).

The amazing things about this product are the ability to change the pressure, the fact that it has a timer, and the fact that it doesn't hold back on the pressure. I remembered the device they put on me after surgery when I was hospitalized a few years ago. I don't know what that device was called (I just looked it up and it seems to be called a

foot pump), but I think it was meant to improve blood flow that tends to pool in the legs. But more than that medical device, this gorilla is a gorilla.
True to its name, "Gorilla," it really does apply pressure as if you've left your calves to a gorilla. Yeah, it's a gorilla. I don't set it to the max because my legs feel like they might get torn off if I use too strong a gorilla, but I'm hooked. I'm grateful that I can change the gorilla's intensity depending on how tired my legs are. Today, it's a gentle gorilla. Tomorrow, it's a spartan gorilla. All sorts of gorillas are packed into this compact device. It's amazing.

Furthermore, my husband gives me flowers every year.

Flowers don't fill my stomach.
You can't buy anything with flowers.
Flowers don't say anything, and if you don't water them, they will wither miserably.

But my husband thinks of giving me flowers.
My husband thinks of giving me the flowers he likes.

Since that makes me happier than anything else, the materialistic side of things doesn't matter to me.
I always think that I want to be the kind of person who receives flowers from him.

My husband is truly a wonderful person.

This might be the first time I've just written down exactly what I'm thinking like this. I can't help but write. Because right now,

my son is out driving by himself for the first time!!!!!

For now, my son coming home safely is my best birthday present. Sorry, husband, for writing all this.

Stretching before bed.
I wish I could give something back to my husband and son to help them relax, too.

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