so i’m sitting here in a denny’s parkinglot waiting for my aunt, grandmother, mother and little 11 year old cousin to get here. march is a busy month for the clan in that there are three birthdays that happen within about two weeks of each other. i admit that my maleness comes out around this thime… i don’t usually buy cards and always ask what they want… as opposed to going out and trying to find an item or items that will surprise and astonish.
seems that i never have enough time to suprise, yet alone astonish.
in a few short minutes we will all converge upon a well worn, sanitized from drunken breakfast eaters from a few hours ago and make small talk about what’s going on in our respective worlds. we will exchange our trinkets, eat overly salted, high fat, low health breakfast food, argue over how much should be left for the tip, hug, kiss and split.
remember when you looked forward to your birthdays? by and large my childhood birthdays consisted of just close family— usually at my aunt gracie’s house or my grandparents. sometimes my aunt lucy would show up. that was all i needed. there were two years i had my birthday at mcdonalds…where i had some of my boys come over… we ate happy meals and tore up a corner of the restaurant for 35 minutes. honestly, those weren’t as fun for me. the pictures take there are funny… but that’s pretty much it.
as i’ve gotten older birthdays mean less and less to me. hell, my in my freshman year of college, i was so sick from over work at school that i literally slept through my birthday. all i remember of that day is being shaken awake by my family, opening my eyelids that weighted 1258 lbs. a piece, seeing aunt, mom and grandmom say “happy birthday frank!” then waking up the next day.
nowadays, i just treat my birthday like any other day really. i go to work, go home, hit the drawing board and maybe watch some tv. we ight go out to dinner if the schedule allows…if it’s really open i might go to a movie. that’s it.
so, if you’re under the age of 14 and are reading this… cherish the birthdays now. because unless you’re puff daddy, they don’t get any better.
if you excuse me, i’m off to eat a grand slam.
