October 18th

I was born on October 18th, 1977 at five a.m. My guess is my mom wasn't looking at the clock so I have no idea if it was five oh-one or five twelve and it doesn't really matter. Apparently I was always an early riser. To this day I feel a bit like my day's wasted if I don't get up before 9am. (It used to be 8am but I'm working on some of my issues, it's important to have priorities.)

I don't remember many of my early birthdays, frankly those who do kinda freak me out. And they really make me feel like a slacker. But I remember happy pictures of my pregnant mom in a yellow t-shirt with a chick on the front. I remember pictures of the baby birthday cake she made for all the first year celebrations back then, a tiny teddy bear that she'd frost in stars and that was all yours. I bet it was good.

I remember a Dukes of Hazard cake sometime in the early eighties. It was the General Lee, of course. And I had Daisy Duke pajamas (a nightgown out of that horrible synthetic material my dad loathed with a silk screened picture of short shorts and a plaid shirt tied up high). I remember going to Ponderosa for several birthdays. I remember one when my grandparents were there but my dad wasn't, I think he had a college class that night.

I remember always wishing for snow. I still do (I live near Hollywood now, anything's possible). Some years I'd get flurries and I'd be ecstatic. Some years I'd get warm weather. Most years? Rain. That's what Michigan's good for in the fall and spring. 

I remember big celebrations with family from all over the state and friends. Birthdays were (and still are) a big deal in my family. Parties with sloppy joes and huge cakes, five quart buckets of ice cream and hours of sitting around and talking.

I remember my sixteenth birthday party. I had a new smart pant suit (don't ask, it was the early nineties) and I went with my Grandma MacDonald somewhere after church, I think to a reception at the local newspaper. I remember meeting a reporter, and it seemed very grown up and cool. I also remember the ring that I had picked out as a gift from my Grandma and my parents. It was a birthstone ring (that I wear daily still, eighteen years later) that I chose rather than having a class ring (I later got my Grandma's class ring which is way cooler than mine would have ever been). Sitting on the floor (there were never enough chairs) I opened the ring box in front of all these people and it was a fake. It was a huge gaudy thing my mom had a friend's daughter craft for her. My mom loves surprises - you've been warned.

I remember the year I got my varsity jacket for my birthday my sophomore year of high school. I'd gotten my varsity letter my freshman year which was pretty awesome. I remember not taking it off the whole day.

I remember going to get my driver's license on the day I turned sixteen. I wore these big earrings that had come from the south, from my grandparents who traveled all the time. They were wooden and painted bright colors and they were the shape of a cow's head. Yep, that was my driver's license photo until I turned twenty-one.

I remember turning twenty-one on a Sunday and they announced it during church. I was the youth group leader at the time and the kids surprised me at the meeting that night with a cake, ice cream and presents. 

The next year I lived on campus at Olivet College and my housemates made me a spaghetti

 dinner which was quite impressive as we rarely cooked at our house. There were gifts and cupcakes and everyone just hung out together that night.

I remember the year in grad school when Angela and our roommate Noelle took me to Bill Knapp's for lunch and they made me wear an over the hill hat. That was the same year I was the youth group leader at a different church and those kids toilet papered my car (and covered it in animal crackers). The other leaders had a surprise party for me that night too. 

One year I went to the apple orchard with Angela and my friend Betsy and I remember thinking fall was the perfect time for birthdays. Everything's starting over (I will perpetually be in a school-calendar mindset) and you have so much to look forward to. 

The year I turned twenty-five my parents surprised me twice. They showed up at my apartment in Kalamazoo after saying they weren't going to make the two hour trip and then they gave me a plane ticket to D.C. to visit a friend. Also, the clown at TGI Friday's made me wear a monkey hat the whole meal. Everyone loved it. Looking back, I did too.

One year Angela threw me a surprise dance party which was amazing. She held it at the Wesley Foundation on campus at WMU and they rented lights and put up sound equipment and we danced for hours and hours. Better than any bar birthday I could have ever had.

The year I woke up at the Bellagio on my birthday was pretty good too. We had lunch by the pool, sat in the hot tub, got free drinks from some guys at a very nice Italian restaurant (I remember the fact that the waitress gave us another set of free drinks in to-go cups as we left most vividly), did jello shots at one end of the strip and played poker at another end. That was a fun birthday. 

The year Angela managed to get frosting all over our Abbey Place kitchen (including the ceiling) was memorable as well, for another reason last year when I had to go to the clinic for bronchitis was also memorable. 

This year I've already celebrated so much. I have an awesome new bed that my parents gifted me with (I moved from a twin to a queen!). My writers' group had a cake and sang for me Sunday. Angela is preparing meatloaf (one of my favorites!) for tonight. I am blessed. Not just for today and for the birthday wishes but for all the memories. For all the people that have crossed my path, made my days brighter and lifted my spirits continuously. I am far away from so many of you today but it doesn't feel that way because I carry you all in my heart.