HappyBirthday to the other part of me, my mirror and my all. You are so many things to me: wife, friend, lover, my partner in the adventure of life, stepmom to my daughter, and soon-to-be mother of my two boys. You are all I want and need. I love you, as always, is not enough to express how I feel.

That was the Instagram post I wrote to wish Tristen a happy birthday this morning.

My eyes were pretty irritated this morning. They were goopy and crusty, though not sealed shut. I put some Visine in them (after I finally found it) which helped for a little while. I had a meeting this morning downtown, so I went to that.

There was a baby doctor meeting this afternoon. I was planning to go to it, but it was a pretty busy day for me and there wasn’t much going on but a blood sugar test for Tristen. That was going to take a while and there wasn’t even an ultrasound or anything, plus she was going out to get a pedi with Torrie for her birthday afterward anyway.

My eyes kept bugging me throughout the day. Tristen got home and we both got a little dressed up to go out to dinner with her family. We took a few pictures before we headed out. My eyes look a little red in this picture, but not as red as they actually were. Tristen looks like Angelina Jolie, in my opinion. Maybe it was the Snapchat filter she used to take it.

We stopped by Torrie’s house to pick her up. Johnny was working late, so he couldn’t make it. Laura and Craig had Sebastian, and we were meeting them at the restaurant, Benny’s Big Time Pizzeria.

As soon as Torrie saw my eyes she was certain I had pink eye. It was a little upsetting to me because I’ve never had it before, and then I got it out of nowhere at almost 40 years old? I guess I didn’t wash my hands properly or something. (I won’t say how Tristen joked with Torrie about how I got it. I’ll tell you if you ask me in person though.)

And of course they were in both eyes. I remember that my right eye was more irritated, but not realizing that I had pink eye, I had touched both of them throughout the day. Ugh.

I do remember looking at the mirror at one point and thinking my eyes looked like those of Ser Robert Strong, the zombie Gregor Clegane (the Mountain) from Game of Thrones.

We pulled into a parking lot at Benny’s that was full, and while I was turning the car around, Tristen said, “Is that Sam’s car? That’s Sam’s car. What are Sam and Berk doing here?”

Tristen insisted on not having a party, but I thought it would be nice for her to see some friends anyway. She’s not big on surprises, but I like to spring a few on her now and then anyway, so I had invited Sam and Berk and Jenna and Drew out to the dinner. Jenna and Drew had been sick the last few days, so they didn’t make it, but Sam and Berkley did, along with Curren. Sam saw Tristen look at her and ducked down in her seat, which is funny because with the stickers on their car, it’s hard to not identify them.

Benny’s Big Time only just opened. Laura was able to get a reservation and was excited to check it out. I thought it was alright. Tristen and Torrie weren’t big fans. We were originally going to go to Osteria Cicchetti and I think Tristen would have rathered that.

I did my best to quarantine myself. Tristen, being pregnant and not wanting to get something she might not be able to take medicine for, saw her mom between us.

I was pretty miserable by the time we got back. Tristen got me some cloths to put over my eyes, which helped a lot. I felt bad that it was her birthday, her last one before having kids, and she was fretting over me.

And that’s how Tristen’s 34th birthday ended.