On Birthdays...

So, today is my Birthday. yay!

Every birthday I tend to compare it to previous ones. Kindof a "how am I doing this year?" thing -- but only in the sense of the actual, physical, day-of-birth way -- not in a general "life" kind of way. A lot of the birthday-days that I have had I have forgotten. They were normal days. The worst ones have stayed with me, so have the best.

Worst birthday-day ever -- I think that here there is a tie, colored by the age at which these birthdays happened.

1) When I was in Jr. High, all your friends would get you a balloon on your birthday and the trick was to walk around the school with this HUGE bunch of shiny "Happy Birthday" balloons tied to your backpack. On my 13th Birthday, a catty girl I didn't even like decided to be mean and told all of my friends that I didn't want any balloons that year. My gullible friends believed her (figures) and no one brought me balloons! As a 13-year-old, this was devastating. I went to the bathroom and cried. My friends felt awful, so the next day each brought me TWO balloons -- completely making up for the horror of the day before. So, sucky birthday-day, but I got over it 24 hours later when I definately had the biggest bunch of balloons in the school.

2) My 22nd birthday. I had just broken up with a long-time boyfriend, was taking time off before starting medical school and was unexpectedly now sleeping on a pull-out couch in my parent's new apartment. My parents had made plans long in advance and so they were out of town for the weekend (I was supposed to be living with my boyfriend, remember?). All my friends were still in college -- I had graduated early -- and the few in NYC were unavailiable. I sat in an apartment that didn't feel like home, broken-hearted and alone. I baked myself an entire cake, frosted it and proceeded to try to eat it. VERY bad idea. Once the clock turned to the 15th, I got over it. The blessings of age and maturity.

Best birthday-day ever:
My friends at college threw me a surprise party for my 21st birthday at my favorite restaurant. Not only that, it was fantastically perfect spring day in Chicago. It was the middle of midterms week-- none of them really had the time to celebrate and yet here they all were! Complete with balloons (I guess it's a theme), flowers, gifts and, ofcourse, alcohol.

How is today comparing? Pretty good. Didn't get out of bed until noon, reading a fabulous book, birthday wishes rolling in on Facebook. It's junky outside -- grey and overcast. My roommate reports that it's "meh", which in sane-person terms probably means "cold." My boyfriend tells me I have a cupcake from Crumbs coming my way (whee!!) and dinner. Plus, I have yet to change out of my pyjamas. I think all things are looking good for a nice day. Happy Birthday to me!