My first 24th Birthday EVER

First off, my birthday was great. I was working, sure, but I heard from friends and family and even people who didn't realize it was my birthday but just thought it would be nice to get back in touch with me. It was neat.

But stepping back one day...

My friend devon wrote a poem about Tennessee, which is great, and which I may be sharing with you all here pretty soon. I wrote a response poem as well, and it got me thinking about Tennessee, and my friends and family, and I got all nostalgic and thought about "back home". And, it was the day before my birthday and everyone suddenly seemed so far away.

So that night, May 9, I was sitting out on the stoop alone, watching the street, drinking some tea, and getting pretty damned homesick. Then I started moping about how I was going to be working and I didn't have a phone card yet and maybe I wouldn't get to talk to anybody and what if no one even thought to send me a card.

That thought in my head, I hear a voice say, "Hey, is this yours?"

I look up and this lady is coming from down the street, holding out a card that had been delivered to her house by mistake. It was a birthday card from my parents, complete with a phone card.

It was a neat little synchronicity and cheered me up immensely and immediately.

So May 10 makes me the first to break quadruplet-hood from my siblings, who are now triplets, I guess. May 10 also marks the first time that this whole alternate age line thing pays off by making me younger on a birthday. Rock on.

My roommate John gave me a t-shirt that says, "When Jesus said Love Your Enemies, I think he probably meant Don't Kill Them." He'd gotten it at a silent auction fundraiser for Su Casa that we'd all been at. It was the only item I bid on, and when I lost the bid, John bid on it. I couldn't bid against him, but complained loudly instead that he was stealing my t-shirt. And hinted loudly that my birthday was coming up. I never expected it would work. But he wrapped it and everything, and now insists that I wear it always, never take it off for any reason, and keep it clean while doing so.

Michael made me a CD of podcasts called "Podictionary", which is for word geeks like me. It's an etymology series on odd words. Really neat. He's also getting me sand and a riffler and a rounded chisel. Because you never know when those things will come in handy. For stone sculpting.

Oh, and a cake. Boy, what a cake. Words can't even describe it. I'll have to remember to take a picture of it, because maybe a picture can describe it.

But yeah, fun times. I like being 24. Which is how old I am.

For real.