Robin Slick: In Her Own Write: The Best Birthday Month Ever

Hello!

What a shock to realize I haven’t written here since March! So many awesome things have happened and for someone retired, I have been crazy busy but incredibly happy, and now I’m honestly coming off the best birthday I have ever had in my life.

I didn’t have just one day, I’m having a birthday summer.

As one should when they reach a momentous age.

It really started in April when I submitted my new novel to an independent publisher and they wrote to me literally a week later and sent me a contract! Soooo Leaving Candyland will be published and available soon.

Then, in June, my summer got even better when both kids were here to perform a Wilco tribute show at the Ardmore Music Hall, and then again in July when Eric performed with his band Dr. Dog in a triumphant show at the Mann Music Center in front of 10,000 screaming fans.

That right there would have been enough for me.

But the next few weeks were spectacular.

Three of a Perfect Pair Camp in Woodstock this year was breathtaking. I’m not a typical camper participating in the music, I am just there to listen—my thing is hanging out in the beautiful house with my family in this absolutely drop dead gorgeous mountain resort.

Here’s a couple pics I love from our week there.

Anyway, I knew Julie had a show with Remain in Light on my actual birthday, and Eric had something tentatively planned in Toronto but said maybe we could celebrate my birthday in September at the Ringo Starr show, so again, I was already perfectly happy with staying home with Gary and eating hand cut French fries and vegetarian mushroom cheesesteaks. But then Julie told me she and Brenna were coming back to Philly after camp and taking me out to dinner on Tuesday for an early birthday celebration—and maybe another birthday hang on Wednesday before she had to fly to San Francisco for her gig. And then, out of nowhere I got a text from Eric while I was still at camp, Hey, how about if Natalie and I fly to Philadelphia on your birthday and we go to Ocean City? Natalie has never been there!

Oh my God, this could end up being the best birthday ever, I thought to myself. But I didn’t get my hopes up. Ever since Covid, I am used to expecting the unexpected now, which includes everything from bad weather flight cancellations to a sudden gig offer too important to skip. I recently learned about catastrophic thinking and you better believe I do everything in my power to avoid it because I am through with unnecessary suffering :)

Well, guess what. Not only did the kids show up, they went above and beyond.

On Tuesday, I ubered downtown and met Brenna and Julie at Monk’s Inn for dinner—I love that place, they have handcut french fries with bourbon aioli—and afterwards we had lemon olive oil soft serve ice cream at 1-900-icecream on Rittenhouse Square which was basically the best thing I have ever eaten in my life.

So yeah, birthday week was off to an awesome start.

The next day, Tim Motzer was kind enough to host a dinner party at his house, aptly named by Julie the Palace of Rad, where Julie, Brenna and Gary did the cooking—Gary’s from scratch roasted tomato sauce and Julie made gnudi.

And then Gary surprised me with a birthday cake, which was really a poundcake from Stock’s.

If you know, you know.

What an incredibly fun night.

On Friday evening, Gary made me my fries and sammie.

And then, on my actual birthday Saturday, Eric and Natalie flew in from Nashville, rented a car, and whisked us to Ocean City.

But not before they presented me with a birthday sash and a tiara, which I wore all day.

Okay, I am still wearing it.

I may wear it forever.

Eric made me a Taylor Swift birthday card and I am dead.

Ocean City was especially awesome because Natalie had never been there before and I was seeing it through her eyes as a charming seaside town with a vintage boardwalk dotted with 100 year old candy stores and a pizza shop around since I was age two—the famous Manco’s.

I don’t know why, but it was extra delicious on my birthday.