Yesterday, I had a really hard time.
For one thing, I just wasn’t feeling that well, which is always sort of a struggle on one’s birthday. Birthdays aren’t quite the same as they were when I was excited to tack on an extra year to my overall tally, but they’re still pretty cool. And having extremely evident allergies (to the tune of 60+ sneezes in a day, with accompanying draining and Cindy-McCain-style-zombie-red-eyes) is just not a welcome addition to such a day’s schedule. I wish I had a better handle on why I suddenly manifest allergy symptoms on and off all the time, but I guess that’s just part of getting older in America these days. Nothing that debilitating so much as really annoying.
The other reason I had a hard time was more whimsical… every time I wrote the date, my inclination was to put “80” in the year slot. This temptation already would’ve been strong, coming off weeks of traveling and filling out border-crossing forms of all kinds. And that’s just the year I normally associate with “2/20”. But then the actual year is “08”? Forget it. I think the whole day was lived as though 28 years prior.
But tack on “reversal year” as some sort of additional random year to celebrate one’s birthday all the more. I guess it doesn’t work if you were born in ’77 or ’88 (or ’44), but everyone else can celebrate a particular birthday when writing the date will trigger any inclination you ever may have had to dyslexia.
This post is sounding a little overly whiny, and really I had a great birthday (at least the celebrating it part). I really appreciated seeing everyone’s e-mails, phone calls, and (new this year) Facebook messages come in over the day. Gris, Anna, & Brandzy joined us for dinner and an eclipse (I may never get over Anna & Emily’s insistence that we blast “Total Eclipse of the Heart” on the way home from dinner while craning necks to see the moon at the same time). There is now even more baseball to anticipate, as people have solidified that baseball and books are the only things I consistently crave. I sneezed and snorted and drained my way to 11:56 PM Pacific, when I officially crossed over into the territory of Even Older than I Thought Was Old Before.
I am feeling about the same today, but hoping to maybe dehydrate myself into not requiring an entire tree worth of repositories for nasal material today. I know, I know, don’t hold back.
It seems I’m only doing relatively quick updates these days and it’s really about time to shower anyway. To keep you entertained with promises of content, I’m hoping to follow-up my analysis of the Republican vote-counting system with a reverse scenario for the Democrats, which should be much more straightforward, but likely offer similarly election-altering (and more predictable) results. There’s ongoing trip update stuff, including really starting to transcribe my journal. And new ideas abounding seemingly every day, competing with old ideas and the vague notion that I really should write some fiction at some point.
My need for a 10-20 hour/week secretary/coder/admin assistant on the Blue Pyramid doesn’t seem to be dissipating. Though reading my handwriting remains an insurmountable challenge. Which prompted Brandzy to suggest last night that I hire a look-alike to spend that time at my desk while I stay home and try to decipher my own handwriting.
Anyone with long hair and a willingness to wear bright colors out there?
