Thursday, July 24, 2008

What Birthday?




It’s finally close enough that I was permitted to order my groqit. For those of you that missed the earlier discussion, a groqit is a nifty little gizmo that reads barcodes. You then transfer the information and it is translated into a readable list of what books, cds, dvds you have. Ideal, considering the boxes and boxes of books all over my house, isn’t it? I’ll let you know how it works once I have it. Supposedly, once I figure out what I'm doing, I'll be able to share the lists of all the titles I have.

That’s it for my birthday. I prefer to ignore it. Well, mostly. I’m not opposed to chocolate cake with too much butter cream frosting but I’ll take one of them any day. My aversion to the day has nothing to do with age. I really don’t care about that at all.

No, my ongoing avoidance of my birthday began when I turned seven and had my one and only party. It was a real nuisance since my birthday is at the end of summer and that made it difficult to invite my school friends. My mother was hassled by the event in every way you can think of and was not at all shy about letting me know it.

Later the night of my party, two people were brutally murdered in the woods surrounding our house. Imagine what it’s like as a seven-year-old to come home and find a yard full of state police, including a helicopter. Then add the fact that I had more than likely stepped on one if not both of the bodies while I was playing in the woods. My mind at the time formed the ridiculous connection – I have a party and people will die.

Yes, I do know full well how totally irrational that is. People die horribly all the time without having anything to do with me or my birthday. The couple that night was at the wrong place at the wrong time. That's all. I didn’t know either of them. One wasn't even local. They just happened to be killed the night of my party in my back yard and left to rot in shallow graves. Still, I’m not taking any chances. Nope, no more birthday parties for me ever.

Tour de France update -
Winner Stage 18, July 24 - Burghardt, Germany
Overall Leader - Sastre, Spain
Cadel is still in 4th with only 3 days to go.

6 comments:

Anika Hamilton said...

Congrats on receiving the groqit.

Happy Birthday when it comes.

Sorry to hear about your bad birthday experience. It is interesting how the passage of time and even the application of logic cannot remove the stigma of certain events in our lives.

Regina Carlysle said...

Isn't it weird how the mind of a child works...associations and things. This is a sad memory for you.

I know you might not want to hear it but happy birthday and I hope someone bakes you that cake. Sounds really yummy.

Unknown said...

I don't do birthdays either and it has nothing to do with age or buried bodies. They just mean nothing to me.

Molly Daniels said...

I'm with Regina...funny how the mind of a child works!

I LOVE lots of butter creme icing on my chocolate cake! I'll make you one, sweetie:) And help you eat it, hahahaha...

Phoenix said...

What the..!??!? If ever there were a surreal juztaposition of events! The innocense of a seven year old skipping through the woods on her birthday to the brutality of two nameless massacres. That is completely flooring to me.

I promise not to go off and kill anyone (see my blog) HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

anny cook said...

Happy Birthday! I too had a couple of weird ones so birthday is not a happy memory. President Kennedy was assassinated on my 14th. In a truly weird cosmic thingy, my daughter's birthday is 9/11...and she was supposed to be on a plane flying into NY later that day.

But I refuse to let some stranger take my celebration away from me. I lived this long... I darn well earned it.