Amy Lu's View

The Golden Rule isn’t always the best approach.

I always try and remind myself of this when it’s Chad’s birthday. If I did unto Chad as I would have Chad do unto me for his birthday, it would be a month-long celebration with much fanfare. It would officially be a BIG DEAL in which much attention, accolades, and praise would be showered upon Chad.

Of course Chad would hate that.

Chad’s attitude about birthdays isn’t because he’s upset or embarassed about getting older. He’s not going to be bothered if you tease him about being 50. He just doesn’t like being the center of attention unless he’s on stage or in the pulpit (and then, bring it on!) and he doesn’t like all the bother and complications of most social events.

So I knew that Chad would not enjoy a big celebration for his birthday, but I was inspired to give him an experience that I was pretty sure he would enjoy–being mentioned for his “Blursday” on his favorite podcast, “”Too Beautiful to Live” (henceforth referred to as “TBTL”).

Now I am not nearly as big of a fan of the show as Chad (mostly because I lack the technical skills needed to easily play a podcast), but I am aware that on Thursdays the hosts do a “Blursday” segment where they wish Happy Birthday to listeners. (Thursday + Birthday = Blursday, I assume, although I was originally trying to Google it as “Blersday.”) And thus my quest for getting Chad featured on Blursday began.

Okay, my quest mostly involved sporadically thinking “Hey, how do I get Chad on a Blursday?” Finally, on the Wednesday of the week before his birthday, while Chad was at his long-standing weekly Geek Night (wherein he plays some type of role playing game with a cast of regulars) I sat down at our laptop and tried to figure out how to make him a featured Blursday recipient.

I searched the TBTL website, but no instructions were readily apparent. Admittedly I had enjoyed a few drinks by this point in the evening, but all I could find was the “Contact Us.” So I clicked on that and submitted a slightly over-the-top but entirely true message about how much Chad loved the show and that he should get a shout-out for his 50th birthday. And, I donated 50 dollars, because hey, a I am not above buying my way onto a podcast.

I even filled out the “Ten of the Week” Questionnaire on behalf of Chad so he could get featured in the weekly TBTL Newsletter, just in case that had anything to do with Blursday (I won’t waste space here trying to explain the “Ten of the Week” but if you need a conversation starter with Chad, now you have one!)

I had done my best, and now all I could was hope that by the next Thursday (January 30, Chad’s actual birthday) the podcast deities would see that he was mentioned as part of Blursday.

The next evening, January 23 (a week before Chad’s birthday) we were hanging out in our kitchen post-Happy Hour listening to that morning’s episode of TBTL. The hosts were talking about the “Ten of the Week” and Chad remarked that he would have a hard time answering the question ” Who was your very first celebrity crush?”

“I can’t stand it anymore…I can’t keep the secret any longer!” I exclaimed, and proceeded to tell Chad the whole saga of my Quest to get his Blursday acknowledged. This included my filling out the “Ten of the Week” questionnaire for him and answering “Princess Leia” to the celebrity crush question. Chad was pleased and bemused, especially by my on-going inability to keep a secret.

Chad said that the TBTL team actually responded to Blursday requests pretty quickly, so he could actually be mentioned on that day’s show. So we kept listening, and sure enough, Chad got a shout-out. I was so excited, and also happy that I got mentioned, too. It was a Win-Win. The only downside was that my plan came to fruition a week early, but hey, that just gave us another week to savor our “15 minutes of fame.”

Chad even said later that he was secretly hoping that I would get his Blursday on-air. SCORE. #HUSBANDBIRTHDAYWIN.

You can listen to our moment in the spotlight at approximately 1:38:00 via this link: https://www.tbtl.net/episode/2020/01/23/3082-so-pitted.

Andrew: Amy wants to wish a Happy 50th Blursday to Chad.

“Thank you for bringing such a sense of community to his life and so much humor and joy and for giving this long married couple something to talk about that usually doesn’t end in a fight. We love discussing how we are ‘Andrew’ or ‘Luke’ and using that to figure out our various personality and relationship quirks.”

Andrew: That’s from Amy to Chad and by the way I think Amy is not as familiar with the inside workings of TBTL [SO true!] but she also donated $50 to go along with this Blursday.

Luke: WOW Aim [I LOVE that Luke called me “Aim.”]

Andrew: So that was really, really sweet. I’m not sure if she wanted me to mention that [Of course I did, it got me/us more attention] but I thought it was really sweet.

Luke: It’s not required it’s always appreciated, a little gratuity, where are we going to go with that? Grease the skids if you want to get Chad’s Blursday to the top of the list!

Andrew: Want to get your blurs wet?