This post is filled with love for Alex.
So, my birthday is tomorrow (today, when you're reading this). Nineteen. Huh. Feels weird... But then, all birthdays do. I've been telling people for a couple weeks, "I turn nineteen soon!" Then, "I turn nineteen next week!" "My birthday's on Tuesday! I'm gunna be nineteen!" Etc. I do this every year, and always feel a little bad about it. It's really not that I'm fishing for "happy birthdays" or presents. I don't care, really. And my birthday is not a big deal to me -- I don't even really celebrate it any more. I mean sure, I'll use my birthday as an excuse for attention sometimes with close friends (it's like a holiday, all about you), or to get out of doing something -- "Do the dishes? But it's my birthday!" -- but last year, my parents had to trick me into celebrating it in the least. In any case, I think I really do that in order to prepare my mind for the reassignment of numerical value to my age. It's like repeating someone's name so that you'll remember it, or examining a friend's new haircut, to adjust your mental image of them to the new look.
Now, in ninth grade, Alex showed up to school on my birthday with a big sign, apparently made that morning, and insisted on holding it over my head the entire day. This was, as I'm sure you can imagine, quite embarrassing. Yet makes for a terrific memory of love. <3. A couple weeks ago, I came across the sign in my garage.
What you can't see there, is the tons of little notes written across it, in many different colors of crayon. Some choice examples:
- I have naughty dreams about you!
- You are better than all the cows in the world!
- You deserve a muffin. No, two!
- I also like pie.
- Your radiance befuddles me!
- Your socks are best.
And where there's not notes, there's hearts and swirls.
The back is signed,
From Alex a secret admirer. <3
April 8, 2004, 6:07am
That kind of awesomeness, it doesn't just go away. Hold on, and we'll rock our way through the ages, no matter what numerical value is assigned to us. Fifteenth birthday, nineteenth birthday, and may we still be jumping on my fiftieth.
Now, in ninth grade, Alex showed up to school on my birthday with a big sign, apparently made that morning, and insisted on holding it over my head the entire day. This was, as I'm sure you can imagine, quite embarrassing. Yet makes for a terrific memory of love. <3. A couple weeks ago, I came across the sign in my garage.
What you can't see there, is the tons of little notes written across it, in many different colors of crayon. Some choice examples:
- I have naughty dreams about you!
- You are better than all the cows in the world!
- You deserve a muffin. No, two!
- I also like pie.
- Your radiance befuddles me!
- Your socks are best.
And where there's not notes, there's hearts and swirls.
The back is signed,
From Alex a secret admirer. <3
April 8, 2004, 6:07am
That kind of awesomeness, it doesn't just go away. Hold on, and we'll rock our way through the ages, no matter what numerical value is assigned to us. Fifteenth birthday, nineteenth birthday, and may we still be jumping on my fiftieth.