Mandatory Birthday Reflection

I can never seem to decide whether birthdays are or are not a big deal.  I look forward to a reason to celebrate, carrying over a lot of good nostalgia for birthday feelings from the past.  Yet, I agree wholly that no one really knows what you're supposed to do while people sing "Happy Birthday" to you.  And there is this additional idea, too, that as you get older you're supposed to switch from enjoyment to dread or at least be ashamed of how old you are.  

See, I am just grateful to make it to thirty.  I'm happy to be here a little while longer.  There were a few places there where we weren't sure I was going to make it past twelve or twenty-five.  I do not understand this concept that anything above twenty-nine is embarrassing--age just is.  

But maybe that's because we're going to go play Skee-ball for my birthday.  Skee-ball is the best.