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Friday, January 05, 2007

Friday 5: birthdays

Today I’m playing on my testimony blog again—yep, birthdays are about God’s gracious action in my life! Again, too, I’m kinda swamped by the demands of my other lives, so my answers aren’t especially innovative though I like this topic a lot.
Yours truly had a birthday this week, and while we've done the birthday thing before, I'm going to do my best to come up with new questions...
1. "It's my party and I'll [blank] if I want to..."
Favorite way to celebrate your birthday (dinner with family? party with friends? a day in solitude?)


Food!! FOOD!!!!! Food...anything but solitude! Dinner at someone’s home or in a restaurant is my favorite; a medium-sized party is my second choice.

2. "You say it's your birthday... it's my birthday too, yeah..."
Do you share your birthday with someone famous? (Click here to find out!)


The utterly obnoxious site, which took forever to load with a very fast connection, listed a dozen, all guys with one exception, but Federico Fellini, Buzz Aldrin and George Burns were the only ones I’d ever hear of—both different years from mine, though.

3. "Lordy Lordy look who's forty..."
Milestone birthdays:
a) just like any other birthday—they're just numbers, people.
b) a good opportunity to look back/take stock
c) enjoy the black balloons—I'll be hiding under a pile of coats until the day is over
d) some combination of the above, or something else entirely.


My usual choice is a strong a.

4. "Happy birthday, dear... Customer..."
Have you ever been sung to in a restaurant? Fun or cringe-worthy?


Yes, at Farrell’s Ice Cream Parlor, a local San Diego ice cream shop chain that totally closed a few months ago. It was totally fun! A group from the Monday evening women’s bible study group I hosted at my home and sometimes facilitated sort of kidnapped me. The parallel guy’s study group joined us at the restaurant. For my friends the kicker had to be the fact my sundae was free!!!!!

On that typically always there other hand, though, shortly after I’d gone on staff of a church I served, a woman in the congregation I considered a friend invited me to dinner at her house and when I got there it was a surprise party, to which I did not take graciously. I’ve always tried my best to not participate in any surprise party plans, but occasionally I’ve had little choice.

5. "Take my birthday—please"
Tell me one advantage and one disadvantage about your particular birthday (e.g. birthday in the summer—never had to go to school; birthday near Christmas—the dreaded joint presents)

EDITED TO ADD: This could also simply be something you like/dislike about your birthday (e.g. I like sharing a birthday with my best friend, etc.).


A winter birthday is cool, and end of January works pretty well since in general I’ve had to attend school on my birthday and can tell people about it, and when I’m working in a reasonably structured environment rather than my current basic free-lancing, I’ve never been taking my winter vacation time at that time. BTW, I’m delighted when people remember my birthday and don’t especially care when they don’t, but I always do something for myself to celebrate the Great Day! PS Ideally my birthday would be in July or early August, since I adore summer.

3 comments:

chartreuseova said...

I loved surprise parties as a kid, not as much any more. But since I haven't had a surprise party for over 30 years, I guess I'd really be surprised.

Anonymous said...

my hubby HATES suprise parties! i learned the hard way unfortunately.

have a wonderful birthday!

Anonymous said...

I'd rather be surprised than forgotten, I guess, but not if it is going to be embarrassing (mulch in my hair or paint on my hands and no time given to shower...)

I'd forgotten about Farrells! I had a surprise there one time - friends got me there for my 18th birthday. We had been out for dinner the previous night so I was completely caught off guard. But it was fun... and free ice cream? Hello.
d