Friday, January 29, 2010

A birthday, and ghosts of birthdays past

Wednesday was my birthday. It was my 41st birthday 2nd anniversary of my 39th birthday. Forever 39! I had to get my license plates and driver's license renewed. Nice birthday present from to the state: "Happy Birthday. Now give us money!". Shouldn't I be the one getting a present on my birthday, not them? Well it's government. It's not supposed to make sense.

My sister and my kids picked out a birthday card for me. It's got kitties singing happy birthday in meows. It's cute. My 6 year old got me a coffee thermos (my sister paid for it). I'm not a big coffee drinker, but I drink it occasionally. At my library they have a machine that makes individual cups of coffee, and they have a few flavors of coffee and tea there. I'm drinking waiting for my lemon tea to cool off right now. I didn't have a cake this year. I don't think 41 candles will fit on one!

I don't remember all my birthdays as a kid. When I was 9 we moved to a smaller town that we lived in (it was just a couple of thousand people, I think). On my next birthday, I invited everyone in my room at school (it was a 2 room school. I was in the Litle room we called it, grades 1-4. The room with grades 5-8 was, of course, the Big Room). My dad made a 2 layer cake, which turned out really well. It was a nice ltitle party. that's the only real birthday party I remember having. I'm sure we did family stuff for the ones before that, maybe at my paternal grandma's house.

I don't think I did anything for my 18th birthday. Right after I turned 18, I took my GED tests and left. My dad and I hadn't been getting along during my teenage years. He kicked me out when I was 17, then made me move back in when he found out I had met someone and was moving with him to a nearby state. If I hadn't moved back, he would have declared me an uncontrollable minor and I might have gone to a group home until I was 19 or 21, I don't remember what the attorney told me. So we put up with each other for a few months until I left.

I was kinda depressed on my 21st birthday. My husband wouldn't take the night off work to go out with me. A friend who had told me before she would bailed on me too. I had been to bars and drank before, they didn't check id then very much, but it's a big deal to go out when you are finally legal. I wouldn't have gotten drunk, but it's kind of a ritual, a tradition. Some places even give you one free drink on your 21st birthday.

My sister did a cool thing, though, for my 21st birthday. She had friends in my town at the SDA college. She called one of them, who got me a cake with my name on it and brought it over. I should have invited her in to have a piece, but I was depressed and the place was a mess. I hope she didn't think I was rude. I just wanted to do something special on my birthday and didn't get to. I don't know if I ever thanked my sister or her friend for that. But it really made my day.

Last year some friends found out it was my birthday the day before, and had a little party at their place for me. It was fun. I got a great book that I read and want to see the movie of.

The Secret life of Bees
. There's even a movie out, which I haven't seen yet but I want to.

I got another cool book for my birthday last year from my sister.

Dewey the library cat
A library in Spencer, Iowa found a kitten in the book drop on a very cold January day. They were able to warm him up and revive him. They decided to keep it at the library. They named him Dewey Readmore Books. He lived 19 years at the library, and loved being the center of attention. The librarian took him home only when there was a long holiday. There's a bio of him on the library's web site, and he even has his own Facebook page with a lot of pictures. I keep telling our library we need a cat, but don't think they will get one. I heard they may make a movie of his story, with Meryl Streep playing the librarian.

A., you can never have enough books!

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