The traveling salesman lives and other Monday ramblings (EDITED)

I live in the woods. I live 1300 feet back from a public road. I mention this because imagine my surprise when my 7 year old announced at 5 pm that someone was coming up our driveway and it wasn't my husband. We rarely get unexpected company. Most people need directions to get here, what with the hockey name, and it being a private (i.e. I OWN) road that doesn't show up on Mapquest. And god love my daughter, she just flung open the door to greet him like he was her best friend. (Note to self: teach child to be AFRAID of strangers, not to embrace them) He was some sort of book salesman. I haven't seen a salesman in 2 years. NO ONE comes to my house here. We don't even get trick-or-treaters because we're so far back, and it's so dark here without any street lights. He was young, clean cut, had a nice name tag. He carried a bag with educational books in them that he was trying to pawn off on sell me. I was so flabbergasted that he was standing on my porch that I actually listened to him ramble on for a minute even after telling him I had to go because I was feeding my two younger children. With the invention of the internet and all the spam we get, who knew that the traveling saleman still existed. Huh.

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This is my birthday month. Oh, no one in my family treats it like a birthday month, mostly because there are too many other people in our family with birthdays this month. My niece will be 17 on Thursday. I have to digress, because her turning 17 fills me with amazement. I was there with Doug the day her parents brought her home from the hospital. He and I had just started dating and I didn't want to hold her because I wasn't part of the family. Now of course she is 17 and I am part of the family and boy oh boy am I old. Anyway, June is full of birthdays. I love my birthday. I don't care how old I'm going to be (EDIT: I will be 36. My husband tells me I'm on the downside to 40 now. How quaint). I love that my kids get excited for my birthday (last year I had to make myself a cake because Meg INSISTED that I have a birthday cake). I already have my birthday present. Doug and I are going to see BON JOVI in concert next month in Boston. I have never seen them in concert. I didn't go to concerts as a teenager, and I've wanted to see them for 20 years. I'm so excited. Giddy even. Oh my god smack me if I get too crazy.

Right now I am listening to the hum of my computer and the clicking of my fingers on the keys. Also, the cat is SNORING, but not too loudly. It's not even 8 pm and ALL my children are in bed. My husband is at a planning board meeting. There isn't another sound in my house right now. It's heavenly. Oh sure, I have a dishwasher to load and a thousand articles of laundry to fold, but time like this is so rare for me that I'm going to enjoy it. What a nice way to end a ho-hum Monday.