So there's a lot of things going in the brain tonight, folks. Let's begin, shall we?
I had my 25th birthday last week. In a way, this still sounds really super-young to me because most of my friends are older than me (in the - gasp! - 27 through 30 range); but at the same time, I remember being a kid and imagining what my life was gonna be like when I was all grown up at 25 years old. In that context, I feel weird about being this old. I don't feel like I'm 25. Twenty-five-year-olds have established careers and 401k's started. I have neither. Sure, I've got a job (that I'll eventually enroll in the 401k plan with), but it's not my career by any means. I make pretty pictures on computers all day. Can I see myself doing this when I'm fifty? No, not really. Not at all, actually. I don't see myself moving up the corporate ladder (well, it's more like a step-ladder in my 25-person office). I see myself… hrm. More like Cain, from "Kung Fu." Just sorta drifting in and out of things until one day my ol' ticker gives out and I'm six feet under. How weird. I'm 25.
Right, so back to my birthday. I have to share this, because it was, by far, one of the top five birthdays of all time. It SOOOOooooOOOOooo rocked the house, yo. It started with me having this fantastic conversation with my mom the night before. We've always been pretty close, but it's rare anymore that we have these huge heart-to-heart talks like we used to. In any case, we spent about two and a half hours on the phone (shhhh, don't tell my dad, he's paying for it) discussing parenting, religion, spirituality, family, politics, you name it. And there was not even an ounce of bad juu-juu from either one of us. It was amazing. At midnight, she wished me a happy birthday, even though I wasn't born until 3:33pm on the 16th. I loved every minute of it, and I was felt feverish with chills after we got off the phone.
Now, let me explain that I tend to be a bit of a princess on my birthday. I think this stems from the fact that my mom used to say to me, "It's your birthday, you can do whatever you want!" Of course she meant something along the lines of, "We can go to the movies, we can go to the zoo, we can go swimming…" But as a kid, I remember telling the neighborhood kids that I could jump of the house if I wanted to, because it was my birthday. ("I just don't want to, that's all!") So, yeah, leave it to me to get a little antsy on the anniversary of my birth.
The day started with me checking my voicemail when I got to work, and finding that I had a message from my boyfriend singing me "Happy Birthday" in the sleepiest voice ever. It rocked. Then, as soon as I hung up, two of my best friends - Gina and Jonathan (I know both of them want to see their names, so there they are), raced each other to see who could wish me a happy birthday first. When I told Gina she was number four, she gave me her trademark screech that just sounds so much better coming out of her mouth: "oh FUCK me!" Good stuff.
Later in the morning, my cousin Jennifer showed up to give me a whole slew of presents and 25 gorgeous roses. I was delighted!! She brought me presents from my Aunt Rose, who's in a nursing home upstate, and is the coolest woman ever. Aunt Rose couldn't decide what to get me, so she lifted a box of latex gloves from the nursing home and wrote "For Use with Good Clean Fun Only" on the outside. OK, so she got me a really cool frame with a picture of me and Jen in it, but the gloves were awesome. And Jen is just hysterical on her own - she gave me a little party hat, which I pretty much wore all day long. Don't forget, I'm the princess!
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