How The Polar Vortex Tried To Ruin My Birthday

Julie McGue

Author

The recent polar vortex that smothered the Midwest with dangerous cold air and wind, descended in time to mar a special occasion. This year I’m celebrating a milestone birthday. My birthday is not mine alone, I share it with my identical twin sister. We’re long past the middle of our lives, and I’ve yet to spend a birthday without my twin. Trying to beat my sister in blowing out the candles on our cakes is always a grin. Festivities were planned shy of our actual birthday, so don’t fret, we’ll still be side by side with a cake somewhere, just not in Chicago with family and friends joining in.

It was during the frenetic days of the holiday season, when not a hint of arctic air was gathering, that my husband and brother-in-law put plans in gear. A party room was secured, a guest list concocted, and snapshots from our early years were unearthed for the invites. Family and friends booked flights into Chicago and hotel rooms were snagged. We were coasting towards a fabulous night out when Mother Nature took control on Jan. 30th. The boss lady stranded key family members, including the birthday girls all over the US. From Detroit to Sarasota to Little Rock and the Silicon Valley, the participants were eager but definitely not anywhere near the Windy City. Instead of the headline: The Twins Turn Sixty, local papers went with: Deadly polar vortex blasts Midwest and Northeast with coldest air in decades.

As I write this, I’m a week from turning sixty, old by some standards, but as a recent snowbird I consider myself on the younger end of that spectrum. With the trip to Chicago cancelled and Super Bowl looming, I headed out to stock the fridge and ran into one of my fellow snowbirds. My friend expressed her sympathy about my cancelled birthday event. Her remarks centered on how well I seemed to be taking the change of plans. I mumbled something about enjoying stretching my birthday out as long as possible, that I loved multiple celebrations. I do like to be roasted more than once, but that wasn’t the reason for my nonplussed demeanor.

It’s been quite a year. Actually make that several years of tense and stressful times. Within months of one another, I lost my much adored, adoptive father, and the biological dad who had refused to acknowledge me. My adoptive Mom has Alzheimer’s, and while she and I have not always been in lock step, she trusts me to manage her affairs. Over the holidays, she became a victim of fraud. Straightening out the mess in the middle of decorating and wrapping gifts didn’t exactly bring out the merry-merry side of me. Between all of that, continuing family health concerns, the political chaos wrecking our nation, stress has become an everyday word. The issue of the polar vortex and rescheduling my birthday party I treated as more of the same: accept the situation, adapt to the consequences, don’t complain and move on.

The good news is I’m going to celebrate my birthday in spite of Mother Nature’s meddling. The milestone party will happen a month later than intended. Lunches with old friends, breakfast with tennis buddies, dinner with Mom are all back on the calendar. A flight to have lunch and carrot cake with my birth mom is planned for next month. That this special birthday was also the year of a record-breaking weather event, I find kind of cool. The synchronicity of both events, turning sixty and the vortex, makes for a great story.

Inclement weather may have taken the spotlight away from my birthday, but it hasn’t ruined everything. I doubt that I’ll ever forget the saga of turning sixty. Bravo Mother Nature! (Can you clue me in a little earlier next year? It would help with stress! Just saying.)

“The issue of the polar vortex and rescheduling my birthday party I treated as more of the same: accept the situation, adapt to the consequences, don’t complain and move on.“

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