Test 1, 2, 3.

I have come to the conclusion that "growing up" is the process of realizing how full of shit adults are when they act like they know what they're doing.

And as an [ostensible] adult, I include myself in the "full of shit" category.

Seriously, I have no idea what I'm doing.

And I grow more and more certain by the day that nobody else does either.

You know that's totally gonna be a movie someday, even if it's a craptastic made-for-TV SyFy original à la Anacondas 3 & 4. But really, who doesn't want to see David Hasselhoff eaten by a giant snake zombies?
Anyway, 28 years ago today, the Nicole Virus was unleashed upon the Earth in order to come up with ideas like The Dam of Human Flesh (created by Killer Beavers who gnaw off people's legs like they're tree stumps).

You're welcome.

I have been looking forward to this movie for weeks. I even declared it to be a (few hours early) birthday gift from you to me. I mean, you've got Lou Diamond Phillips, who is one of those made of awesome actors who can actually pull off a crappy movie (see also: Bruce Campbell & Sean Patrick Flanery), and he's fighting the frakking Jersey Devil! There is no way in which that is not awesome. So you go ahead and give me a really fun to watch movie, only to end it by killing off Lou Diamond Phillips.
You do not kill off the hero of your movie.
Sure, he died saving the day and finally killing the Jersey Devil, but usually that's a fake-out death (à la the monster coming back five times) such that the love interest/kid/whoever can be all boohoo only to have the hero triumphantly emerge from the flaming rubble having somehow miraculously survived unscathed (à la Indy J surviving a nuclear explosion by hiding in a fridge-- you know, totally logical stuff like that).
Way to ruin a really awesome movie there, SciFi.

Oh well, it's my birthday! Yay!

and I... don't care?
I mean, it's not like I'm dreading it all, I'm so old! And lookit all the wrinkles on my decrepit, aging, 24-year-old body! Ack! *cough* *hack*

Ahem.

It's more like I didn't entirely... notice it?
I mean, I decided to take off that day (and the day before it). And I decided that one of those days off I would go into Philly and see the King Tut exhibit (I do need to figure out the logistics of that in a fashion that is not "scramble at the last minute and wind up not going"). But I'm not thinking of it as a Birthday Trip, more like the Remember When I Was Obsessed With Dead People (Oh Yeah, I Still Am) Nostalgia Tour.

It's just not on my radar anymore. For that matter, most celebratey things aren't. I suppose I've never been particularly gung-ho about such things-- certainly not as into the holiday spirit as certain other people who plan their wardrobes around it. But I seem to recall actually liking Christmas and Easter and my Birthday. Thanksgiving seems to be the only one I perk up about nowadays, which I guess is at least partly due to the fact that as I've grown up I've discovered that I hate Jesus. Well, I don't hate him, but I don't think he existed so celebrating his birth and death and zombification and such seems sorta yucky. And I know it's all ripped off of Pagan holidays, anyway, but that just makes me bitter. It's hard to enjoy seasonal rituals when they've got Jesus germs all over them.

But that's not even what I'm talking about. I'm talking about my birthday that I haven't even started counting down 'til. I haven't made a birthday list, I haven't come up with a dinner for mom to make, or a dessert for myself to make.

It's just so eh.
And the fact that I feel like I ought to be excited and just can't seem to muster up some enthusiasm about it makes me feel worse.

Well, no more! It's my birthday and I'll cry if I want to! No.. wait.. that'd only be applicable if I were having a party, and besides the point is that I don't want to be all cry-y and depressed about it, 'cause it's my birthday. And I'm not an old fogey, and even if I were that wouldn't be something to be upset about. I am going to go to the Franklin Institute and I am going to have fun, and I will rock out to "Six Feet Under" by No Doubt, and it's a Thursday, so if nothing else, there's gonna be a new Supernatural with pretty boys to look at. Plus, having the day off is rarely objectionable. So there.

But 23 years old just the same.

Happy Birthday to me!

P.S. I'm leaving at 4:15 so I should definitely make it to pus by 5:30, so you should call me at their number cuz then we won't be using up double the cell phone minutes.

Your scanned birthday card:








Pictures of your presents (I know they're pretty crappy, but considering the major runny nose allergy extravaganza I was having at the time, I think they turned out pretty good):

It's not a milestoney year in the legal permission sense as as usual there's the inner war between whee! it's my birthday! a special day all for me! and i'm really only one day older than i was yesterday just like right now i'm five minutes older than i was five minutes ago. the signifigance of the year in human culture. i have to question it because that's what i do especially when you consider how they arbitrarily divide it up with the leap year nonsense cuz they want it to fit into our structure of days and years and it'd be so much cooler if we had a more universal time keeping device that was less subjective to astrological factors because what is a day when you're not on a planet? bring on the stardates people!