TOW Birthday Notice
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
ragnarok5
May the "Midnight Madness" start to get to you!
And speaking of birthdays...the fact that today is 9/19 means that in one week's time it'll be my birthday. I'm ambivalent about it because I have notoriously bad birthdays. Need proof?
1996 - Sixteen Candles IS Real, Mommy. The first of the bad; like Molly Ringwald, due to my sister’s upcoming wedding, everyone forgot my birthday, unlike Molly Ringwald, there was no Jake Ryan with cake and sportscar to cheer me up.
1997 - Christ! Vote for me! I spent this birthday being forced into going out with my friend Mary, her then-boyfriend Rick, Lucy, Heather, and Rick’s scary cousin Jim because they all felt I should “give Jim a chance,” and that the reason I didn’t want to go out with him in the first place was cause he looked like Jesus. They were quite wrong as this man’s resemblance to Jesus was only skin deep and that’s why I didn’t want to date him [total pill, no HS diploma, chronic pot smoker, and alcoholic though he was only 19, AND I just didn’t feel right around him], they were angry with me and I was miserable until everyone figured this out. Everyone except Mary, who later married him.
1998 - Rachel’s Birthday and The Case of the Missing Cupcake. My first year at college and my new friends did their best to make me a great birthday. We ate out [where I wanted to], then we went to my favorite frat house for a frat party---Sig Ep. Things were looking up. Until I spent the entire night getting pawed from a waif-like, toothless man and then a former Sig Ep brother and his new girlfriend solicited me for a threesome. I went downstairs hoping the cupcake/candle the gang brought along and the whole frat party’s singing would make me feel better, only to find out that someone ate it.
1999 - The Party That Wasn't. I’m still baffled as to what happened here. Totally unbeknownst to me, my roommate Gretchen and another friend Andrea were going to throw me a surprise birthday party. However, because I commented one too many times about missing Lucy [who was still here in Berks County when I was up in Selinsgrove], they decided to not have the party. Also this day, I spent with my then-friend Scott and his friend Jim [why are they ALWAYS named Jim---“Hey, your first name is my last name.”] at the town fair. This man was as thrilling as molasses in January. However, I gave him the benefit of the doubt---then Scott tried to hook him up with Gretchen. My parents came this day, too, if I recall.
2000 - "Boys have bugs, stay away!" It was a rainy day and I spent most of it sleeping. I received a forced birthday hug from Jeff, the “Buff Nerd” as he was on his way to hit on some underclassmen. Then, Scott---whom by this point I had had a falling out with---asks my roommate, “How can you live with her?” in earshot of me. Much to my enjoyment, however, Gretchen promptly said, “You know, Scott, did you ever think the problem was YOU!” then turned on her heel and left. Still not the best of days, as I spent the rest of it crying.
2001 - Where Have All My Girlfriends Gone? Almost all of my friends were unavailable this day, and mine was the birthday they had been waiting for because I was the last one to turn 21, and we were all gonna go out and do stuff. However, most of them were away for an overnight school event and Gretchen had late-night play practice. I did spend it doing the hum-drum class routine, then went home to nap, only to be awakened by a phone call from Eric Z., this creepy guy who has no concept of personal space and looks like Tecumseh. Total spaz. I used to be nice to him until he started being weird about the personal space [he used to rub up against me in this one class we had together.] Then he came over. I spent the rest of the night until Gretchen came home trying to shove off the advances of this man. Then we went to bed early.
2002 - Where Have All My Girlfriends Gone? Part Deux. Just boomeranged from college, I wasn’t expecting much and for once, life lived up to my expectations. My birthday was used as the ruse for my parents’ 35th anniversary [my birthday is conveniently three days after their anniversary]. This year, not having the college friends around, I was all set to rely on my HS friends. However, none of those were around either, as they were off doing bigger and better things. Gretchen did come up, but it was mostly to help out the ruse.
2003 - I don’t remember this birthday. Isn’t that sad? It’s like when Dolores forgot the year 1999. I do know that Nichole from work had stopped speaking to me months earlier and we had a brief attempt at reconciliation when she gave me a Kurt Wagner X-Men action figure. However, a few days later we fell out past the point of no return. Dad was also feeling quite poorly and we would later discover that it was due to Congestive Heart Failure. Beyond that, I have no remembrance.
2004 - The touch heard ‘round the world. This is the day that I spit on Sean the Piper and then touched him inappropriately. Bad? Possibly. Good? Possibly. Earlier that weekend, I got my hair colored, had dinner with the gals at Olive Garden, and received my new Harry Potter messenger bag. Not a total loss I guess. I still haven't spoken to him since out of sheer mortification.
2005 - Old People Birthdays. With my 25th birthday, I have, apparently, joined the ranks of old people birthdays. You know, where no one really remembers [except a couple close friends], and you spend it doing grown-up stuff. Mine was spent sleeping late, then heading to the Bible Book Store to buy stuff for Sunday School. I came home and then big sis Hope came with her two kids and flowers. Then I took out the trash, and fell asleep on the couch by 7:00. It sucked because when Hope turned 25, Mom and Dad took threw a party for her at a bar. I got Jesus and trash.
The point of writing that all out was not just so I could "bitch" about it on LJ. I was trying a self-actualization excercise. Hoping that maybe by listing them I'd somehow break the 10 year cycle.
And I'm sure some of you are saying, "Let me call the WAMbulance for ya; maybe two of those could be considered really bad." Yeah, you're probably right. But, when you come from a family in which you're practically invisible and your birthday is the ONE day a year that they have no excuses not to not acknowledge your existence and treat you somewhat nice, but every year it just turns to a pile of crap, it's a little disheartening. However, true to my idealist self, I keep hoping every year that this year, THIS year will be the year when things turn around. And they never do.
[aside] It wasn't all bad: It should be noted that in 2005, I was thrown an absolutely fantastic half-birthday party by Dolores. It was a Murder Mystery, set in the 1920s. My icon is from this party. I was tremendously sick and dizzy and also had spent the greater part of the weekend at the hospital for my father who had gone into Congestive Heart Failure again [this time to be told by a different doctor that the difibrulator he had was not the best one for his condition.] It was quite stressful. Yet, despite that, it was one HELL of a good time. I thank her for that. She has no idea how much that meant to me.
ragnarok5
May the "Midnight Madness" start to get to you!
And speaking of birthdays...the fact that today is 9/19 means that in one week's time it'll be my birthday. I'm ambivalent about it because I have notoriously bad birthdays. Need proof?
1996 - Sixteen Candles IS Real, Mommy. The first of the bad; like Molly Ringwald, due to my sister’s upcoming wedding, everyone forgot my birthday, unlike Molly Ringwald, there was no Jake Ryan with cake and sportscar to cheer me up.
1997 - Christ! Vote for me! I spent this birthday being forced into going out with my friend Mary, her then-boyfriend Rick, Lucy, Heather, and Rick’s scary cousin Jim because they all felt I should “give Jim a chance,” and that the reason I didn’t want to go out with him in the first place was cause he looked like Jesus. They were quite wrong as this man’s resemblance to Jesus was only skin deep and that’s why I didn’t want to date him [total pill, no HS diploma, chronic pot smoker, and alcoholic though he was only 19, AND I just didn’t feel right around him], they were angry with me and I was miserable until everyone figured this out. Everyone except Mary, who later married him.
1998 - Rachel’s Birthday and The Case of the Missing Cupcake. My first year at college and my new friends did their best to make me a great birthday. We ate out [where I wanted to], then we went to my favorite frat house for a frat party---Sig Ep. Things were looking up. Until I spent the entire night getting pawed from a waif-like, toothless man and then a former Sig Ep brother and his new girlfriend solicited me for a threesome. I went downstairs hoping the cupcake/candle the gang brought along and the whole frat party’s singing would make me feel better, only to find out that someone ate it.
1999 - The Party That Wasn't. I’m still baffled as to what happened here. Totally unbeknownst to me, my roommate Gretchen and another friend Andrea were going to throw me a surprise birthday party. However, because I commented one too many times about missing Lucy [who was still here in Berks County when I was up in Selinsgrove], they decided to not have the party. Also this day, I spent with my then-friend Scott and his friend Jim [why are they ALWAYS named Jim---“Hey, your first name is my last name.”] at the town fair. This man was as thrilling as molasses in January. However, I gave him the benefit of the doubt---then Scott tried to hook him up with Gretchen. My parents came this day, too, if I recall.
2000 - "Boys have bugs, stay away!" It was a rainy day and I spent most of it sleeping. I received a forced birthday hug from Jeff, the “Buff Nerd” as he was on his way to hit on some underclassmen. Then, Scott---whom by this point I had had a falling out with---asks my roommate, “How can you live with her?” in earshot of me. Much to my enjoyment, however, Gretchen promptly said, “You know, Scott, did you ever think the problem was YOU!” then turned on her heel and left. Still not the best of days, as I spent the rest of it crying.
2001 - Where Have All My Girlfriends Gone? Almost all of my friends were unavailable this day, and mine was the birthday they had been waiting for because I was the last one to turn 21, and we were all gonna go out and do stuff. However, most of them were away for an overnight school event and Gretchen had late-night play practice. I did spend it doing the hum-drum class routine, then went home to nap, only to be awakened by a phone call from Eric Z., this creepy guy who has no concept of personal space and looks like Tecumseh. Total spaz. I used to be nice to him until he started being weird about the personal space [he used to rub up against me in this one class we had together.] Then he came over. I spent the rest of the night until Gretchen came home trying to shove off the advances of this man. Then we went to bed early.
2002 - Where Have All My Girlfriends Gone? Part Deux. Just boomeranged from college, I wasn’t expecting much and for once, life lived up to my expectations. My birthday was used as the ruse for my parents’ 35th anniversary [my birthday is conveniently three days after their anniversary]. This year, not having the college friends around, I was all set to rely on my HS friends. However, none of those were around either, as they were off doing bigger and better things. Gretchen did come up, but it was mostly to help out the ruse.
2003 - I don’t remember this birthday. Isn’t that sad? It’s like when Dolores forgot the year 1999. I do know that Nichole from work had stopped speaking to me months earlier and we had a brief attempt at reconciliation when she gave me a Kurt Wagner X-Men action figure. However, a few days later we fell out past the point of no return. Dad was also feeling quite poorly and we would later discover that it was due to Congestive Heart Failure. Beyond that, I have no remembrance.
2004 - The touch heard ‘round the world. This is the day that I spit on Sean the Piper and then touched him inappropriately. Bad? Possibly. Good? Possibly. Earlier that weekend, I got my hair colored, had dinner with the gals at Olive Garden, and received my new Harry Potter messenger bag. Not a total loss I guess. I still haven't spoken to him since out of sheer mortification.
2005 - Old People Birthdays. With my 25th birthday, I have, apparently, joined the ranks of old people birthdays. You know, where no one really remembers [except a couple close friends], and you spend it doing grown-up stuff. Mine was spent sleeping late, then heading to the Bible Book Store to buy stuff for Sunday School. I came home and then big sis Hope came with her two kids and flowers. Then I took out the trash, and fell asleep on the couch by 7:00. It sucked because when Hope turned 25, Mom and Dad took threw a party for her at a bar. I got Jesus and trash.
The point of writing that all out was not just so I could "bitch" about it on LJ. I was trying a self-actualization excercise. Hoping that maybe by listing them I'd somehow break the 10 year cycle.
And I'm sure some of you are saying, "Let me call the WAMbulance for ya; maybe two of those could be considered really bad." Yeah, you're probably right. But, when you come from a family in which you're practically invisible and your birthday is the ONE day a year that they have no excuses not to not acknowledge your existence and treat you somewhat nice, but every year it just turns to a pile of crap, it's a little disheartening. However, true to my idealist self, I keep hoping every year that this year, THIS year will be the year when things turn around. And they never do.
[aside] It wasn't all bad: It should be noted that in 2005, I was thrown an absolutely fantastic half-birthday party by Dolores. It was a Murder Mystery, set in the 1920s. My icon is from this party. I was tremendously sick and dizzy and also had spent the greater part of the weekend at the hospital for my father who had gone into Congestive Heart Failure again [this time to be told by a different doctor that the difibrulator he had was not the best one for his condition.] It was quite stressful. Yet, despite that, it was one HELL of a good time. I thank her for that. She has no idea how much that meant to me.