Another long work day for my sister so I spent the day relaxing, doing some work, watching TV, and writing. After a bit, I realized that I did not get any cake – in fact no dessert at all – on my birthday. On top of that, my office, which does once a month birthday celebrations, had had their October celebration when I was out sick. And the cake I had requested was eaten up by everyone and no one saved me a piece. I started Googling bakeries and all of them closed at 4pm or 5pm. It was almost 3pm, so I took a quick shower and called a Lyft to take me to My Gal, Sal Bakery & Cafe, where they also had food and I thought I would pick something up for dinner. Denise and I were going to go out when she got home but I figured she would be tired and it would be late, so it was better to eat in.

I got to the place at 4:15pm and their kitchen had closed at 4pm. So no food. And none of the cupcakes spoke to me, so I bought two slices of birthday cake.

Instead of calling Lyft again, I thought I would walk the half-hour to the street where I could get a bus and maybe would pass someplace for food. In another shopping mall was the European Bakery & Cafe, which not only had delicious looking pastries but also gelato and they made great looking heros. I ordered a bruschetta hero for Denise and an Italian hero for myself. This is it after I ate half of it. It had several Italian deli meats plus provolone.

I also got two apple strudels for breakfast the next day for the two of us and some gelato for myself – wild prickly pear berry and spumoni.

By now it was starting to get dark and I took a few photos of the sunset. Not a pretty Arizona desert sunset but a gritty Arizona urban sunset.

The bus was going to arrive in about 10 minutes and I double checked that Phoenix buses took bills. When I went to put the money in the farebox, the driver said pass or coins only. His farebox could not take bills. He told me to put the money in the next bus (he was assuming I would be transferring to another bus) and I told him this was the only bus I was taking and I thought he was going to throw me off but he told to go and sit down. As everyone got off, they waved to the driver and thanked him. So not New York. I did the same when I got off. It was then a 20-minute walk to the house.

When Denise got home, we ate our sandwiches and then we opened the bottle of Prosecco she had and drank that with my birthday cake. So – finally had cake for my birthday.

By Carene Lydia Lopez