The Cost of Spending a Birthday Alone (For the Most Part)

Yesterday was my birthday. I spent it alone. It was a Monday. Everyone else was at work. I could’ve spent the day feeling sorry for myself or pretending that it was just any other day, but I opted out of those nightmarish scenarios for an entire day spent mostly alone. A day with zero obligations to anyone other than yourself is the best gift. I try to absolve myself of responsibility at least once a week. Yesterday was my day. Here’s what it cost me.

1 full session + 30 minute massage at the Aire Ancient Baths: $138 + $20 tip
A friend told me I should go to this place because it’s amazing, but also because Justin Bieber spent a day there and was written up in Page Six for moaning loudly during a 4-handed massage. I opted out of the four hands for the more casual two, and spent an hour and change floating around on my back in a pool full of salt water with no less than two couples giving each other sensual massages by candlelight. Throughout the course of my time there, I also accidentally stole at least two people’s robes; in my defense, it was dark and I was very relaxed. Also, I had treated myself to a teeny nibble of an edible. Perhaps that influenced things. Regardless, it was lovely.

1 very expensive juice, purchased because I was so, so, thirsty: $15
I think juice is a rip-off, but it was there and the menu looked to be hand-drawn in a way that I find charming, so I bought a juice and drank it.

1 mediocre sandwich and a large bottle of water and a ginger cookie: $14.50
The sandwich was fine. The water was lovely. The cookie, I enjoyed the most. I sat on a park bench and ate the sandwich while listening to the new Solange album; a fine way to spend a day, even if it’s not your birthday.

Three skeins of yarn from the overpriced yarn store in Soho, $60.38
It feels like knitting season the first day I can sit in my room comfortably without the drone of my AC. Every bit of yarn I have at home is clearly inappropriate for whatever sartorial vision I’ve cooked up for Fall 2016. That’s why every year, in the fall without fail, I spend more money than is necessary on yarn.

Total: $247.88

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