6 posts tagged “birthday”
So John and I want to take a trip for my birthday, which is in - mark your calendars - 28 days. But we're short on time, so it has to be quick and easy. And no, I'm not going to get on a plane the weekend of my birthday. I've had to do enough damn flying lately; I don't want to be stressed out. [Side note - I have somehow, through the use of my magical powers, convinced John to take me to Paris for my 25th birthday next year. God, I am such an evil genius.] But what about this year?
We were thinking of renting a car and driving somewhere. I was thinking Boston, but then... that kind of defeats the purpose of getting out of the city for a few days. Not that I don't want to go to Boston, because I do, but for this trip I'd prefer not to leave one huge city for another. So basically, our destination needs to be no more than about five hours away by car from NYC. And I don't know anything about or anywhere to go in the North that's no more than five hours and will be really fun. [I went to Connecticut once, for about 24 hours, but that's the farthest north I've been in the US, and it wasn't really that exciting.]
I am now enlisting you good people. Surely some of you have some expertise in fun places to go in the Northeast. Yes? Yes? Anyone? Please help, I'm totally clueless. We are just going to take a long weekend - leave on a Friday, home on Monday. So start sending those suggestions my way.
So my mother's birthday was last week. Everyone go wish her happy birthday. I would have actually written her a happy birthday post on her birthday, except that when I get home from work, I pretty much want to stay as far away from my computer as possible. I've stopped replying to emails, comments, etc... I fail in Internet Land.
At any rate, my mother was like... five or six or something really young when she had me. As you can tell from her photos. It was a marvel of modern science. I'm pretty sure it was her 29th birthday. But I may be overestimating.
Whatever age she is, I'm pretty lucky to have her and wouldn't trade her for any mom in the world. [And believe me - a great daughter like me, I've had plenty of offers. Ahem, Vanessa.] We've had our ups and downs, and we can have some epic fights, but I love that crazy mom of mine. If not for her, I wouldn't have my sick sense of humor, my love of travelling, my passion for animals.
I love ya, Mom. Happy birthday!
Today is my grandfather's 82nd birthday, but you wouldn't guess he's a day over 65. He's known to read my Vox, so I figured I better give him the credit he's do. Afterall, he's the original journal keeper in the family, having kept a diary since the day my mother was born in 1960. She and I owe it all to him, you could say.
Thanks for being such a wonderful grandfather, Pops. Thanks for taking me to get a chocolate milkshake everyday after kindergarten; thanks for being our taxi man for all those years; and thanks for marrying Granny, who has kept all of us fed for so long. [He asked her to marry him on their 3rd date, and 60 years later they're still the happiest couple I know. If my life is half as happy as theirs, I'll be doing pretty well.]
[Oh, and go read what my cousin Shane wrote about my fantastic grandfather. He's just all over the internet today.]
Happy Birthday, Pops! We all love you very much. I wish I had been home to celebrate!
My brother is the coolest, most interesting, funny kid you could ever hope to meet. When we were growing up, we moved all over the place, just about every year. As a result, Justin and I became very close because it wasn't always easy to be the new kid and make friends. So we were each other's best friend. We still are.
The day Justin was born is one of my very first memories. I was at my grandparent's house, and I am pretty sure it was snowing. We lived in Amarillo, Texas at the time. My grandparents took me to the hospital to meet him, and I thought he was really sort of boring. I wanted to name him Tumbleweed.
Pretty much all my favorite childhood memories involve Justin. I love that if there's a cartoon or movie or toy that I remember and nobody else does, I can call him up and he'll know exactly what I'm talking about. I love that if I call him up and say something stupid like, "And you know what the deer's doing? It's hitting you in the face!" he'll erupt in laughter, because he's basically the only other person on the planet who gets that joke. I think it's so neat that there's this other person who shared in my entire childhood; I can't imagine not having a sibling. It's so interesting the things he remembers from growing up and what I remember from growing up. Between the two of us we have an extensive archive of memories that we share.
Although there were times I certainly wished I was an only child, I never meant it of course. I hope that when I have children someday they are as close and as happy as my brother and I were. I know people who aren't close to their siblings at all, and I can't even fathom that. It's so silly; so sad. Those people have no idea what they are missing out on.
So happy birthday, Tumbleweed. Thanks for being the greatest brother in the world; I love you to pieces.
The secret to getting lots of presents on your birthday: move far far away from home. Apparently.
I had a great birthday, and not because I was showered with presents, but because of the fact I have such good friends and family.
I arrived home Friday afternoon to find a huge box waiting at the bottom of the stairs. Inside were many presents from my co-workers [and surrogate mothers + real mother] at Vida: a garden gnome, lots of make-up, a pedicure kit, tarot cards, a book, earrings, nail polish and lots of silly notes and cards from everyone. I couldn't believe they did that; it was so sweet. My mother also sent me a gift certificate to Barnes & Noble
At midnight John let me open one of the presents he got me: beautiful silver and green earrings. He made me wait until yesterday morning for the others, however: a Chinese horoscope book and much to my
Apparently John, being the sneak he is, contacted my entire family, and everyone chipped in a little, so the camera was from John, my mom, dad and grandparents. It's a beautiful Olympus E-500 with with two lenses, lens hoods and all kinds of amazing features. I have a Fuji FinePix, but this Olympus blows my Fuji out of the water. I was really really surprised, but John's like that. He's good at keeping secrets. He got tickets to the Daily Show and was able to keep it a secret for two months before I finally wrestled it out of him.
My birthday was mostly quiet. John cooked a huge breakfast and made me tea. I played with my camera and read my new book. It was just a nice day. Around 8 we went to dinner with our friends
After dinner we headed to my favorite bar: Niagara. We sat in the back and I took lots of pictures. Lily and I went outside to smoke after a while, and when we were walking back in the bouncer claimed he didn't remember us. Luckily I had my cell, so I called John who brought us our purses. I showed the bouncer my ID and he claimed it was
John came outside and told me not to worry about it, we'd just go someplace else. He walked inside to pay his tab, while I continued to look for something else to prove my age, and the bouncer followed John inside and tried to pick a fight for no reason. John told him to just leave him alone, and explained the situation to the bartender, who knows us, and asked us not to leave, that he would straighten this out. Finally I found my passport and the bouncer reluctantly let me back in. We gathered our things and left. The funny thing is that when Lily and I walked outside, we spoke to the bouncer.
Afterwards we went to 7B, just down the street, more amused by the ordeal than anything else at this point. The bouncer had called John a "hardass." John, who rarely isn't smiling. It was actually rather funny.
Lily and I found a table and sat down. There was a pitcher and two glasses on the table, but we just assumed it was old. Apparently not, however. After we were all sitting down two blonde girls came over and demanded we move. We wouldn't. They got mad and I seriously thought they were going to dump the pitcher on our heads,
Elan met us at 7B, and we recounted our various run-ins. They pretty much dominated the conversation the rest of the evening as we all found the whole ordeal hilarious.
Unfortunately the evening did not end well for Elan, as he was mugged while walking to the train on 11th and 2nd after he left 7B. Luckily he wasn't hurt, but three huge guys made off with his cell phone and wallet. We
All in all - aside from Elan's mugging - it was a really really great birthday. I missed my Wilmington friends and family a lot, but my New York friends did it up right.
My birthday was pretty tame as far as my birthdays usually go, which I think is a positive sign that I really am growing up.
Thanks for giving birth to me mom. I really appreciate it.
I'll be twenty-three next week. Twenty-three. I still feel thirteen. I live in my own apartment with John in NYC and have a job and do adult things, but sometimes it feels like this thin veneer. Like when you're a child playing house. It doesn't seem possible to think that I'm already twenty-three. Not that I'm old; not at all. I just kind of figured I'd be at a different place now. This place isn't bad at all; just different than what I always imagined for myself. I'm sure this is a common tale.
At any rate, there are things that I wanted to do by now that I haven't, so I'm making it my business to accomplish a few things within the next five years. Some of these goals are stupid, and some are serious, but I want to do everything on this list by my 28th birthday. [God, I love making lists; I am such a virgo.]
These aren't really in a specific order of importance or anything. They're all important.
- Finish my degree. [I'm a history major, in case you were wondering.]
- Learn to play the drums.
- Get my other owl tattoo to match the on my back that I already have. [He's lonely; he wants a friend.]
- Publish a novel, or at least five short stories in major publications.
- Learn another language. [I speak French; I'd like to be trilingual. I'm thinking maybe Russian.]
- Drive across country with John, from New York to Oregon or Northern California. [I want to stop at tourist traps and meet new people and have a real adventure.]
- Go to Asia. [Japan, maybe. Thailand or India. There are a lot of places in Asia I'd love to see.]
Find a job that makes me really happy and where I am able to give something back to the world, even if it doesn't make me a lot of money. [Maybe working with animals or kids or something.]- Fix my credit. [It's all kinds of fucked up thanks to the idiot I was at eighteen.]
- Move into an apartment with a garden or a terrace or something. [I want some outside space.]
- Stop smoking. [This is an immediate one.]
- Send my secrets into PostSecret, like I've been meaning to for months.
- Finish one of the NY Times Sunday crosswords by myself, without cheating.
- Learn to cook as well as John does.
- Visit the following states: Maine, Vermont, Massachusetts, Alaska, Louisiana, Illinois, Utah, Oregon, Washington and Montana. [Because I haven't been to any of those places.
I have a lot more I will probably add to this overtime. These are just the things that came to me right away. I think they're all attainable goals for the next five years.
More later.
