I have just turned twenty-seven. I had the birthday that would not end, which is just the way I like them to be. Here are a few things, tangible and intangible, that I got as presents this year:
-- an anthology of prose and poetry about the city of Berkeley
-- a poster for the movie "Muppets Treasure Island"
-- a red cellophane, fortune-telling fish
-- a fully-stocked spice rack, cleverly disguised as a test tube holder
-- a copy of Simon Winchester's "The Map That Changed the World," describing the development of modern geology/paleontology
-- a new root beer, Root 66
-- a familiar favorite root beer, Coastal Fog
-- an evening spent alone with Mike at the Hotel Avante, which provided us with hard candies, free bagels, and a desk full of toys (i.e. Rubiks Cube, Etch-a-Sketch)
-- macaroons
-- an anthology about the Central Valley
-- a "dessert crawl" through San Francisco, where I ate chocolate pudding, lemon tart, raspberry crepes, and s'mores, all in one night
-- a copy of "Bel Canto," which describes what happens when a Japanese businessman and his favorite opera singer are taken hostage by South American guerillas
-- two great DVDs: "Magnolia" and "Moulin Rouge"
-- a bouquet of yellow roses and daisies
-- a conversation with a no-longer-deaf person
-- a package of "Bertie Botts' Every Flavor Beans," cleverly disguised as Jelly Bellys
-- dinner at "Global Village Cafe," one of my favorite restaurants
-- a partially completed birthday spanking
-- cards from Michigan, Minnesota, and an exchange student from China
-- a carrot ginger cake with twenty-seven flaming candles and one for good luck
-- phone calls from Singapore, Connecticut, and Tennessee
-- a reminder that, while twenty-seven is a cube, twenty-eight is perfect. This means I am now on my way to becoming perfect!
-- the opportunity to welcome new friends into my home
-- a gallon of homemade Cookies and Cream
-- two new classes of ESL students
-- a synthesizer serenade from Westchester
-- a friend singing, "She was BORN in the summer/of her twenty-seventh year. . . "
-- a card that read, "I think you're my best friend" from someone who I think is my best friend, too
-- a card signed by the person whose job it is to mail birthday cards, because when she saw it was to me, she couldn't resist
-- some hilarious English translations in a book called, "English as She is Spoke"
-- a green Sharpie
-- three used CDs of choral music
-- a purple Mylar balloon
-- an antique lace tablecloth
-- a three-year-old asking, "Birthday? Where's the surprise? Who's the surprise? Are you the surprise?"
-- a new cross necklace
-- a pesto pasta salad
-- a bag of _only_ black licorice jellybeans (the kind Mike usually picks out)
-- a joke involving a frog named Kermit Jagger
-- an email consisting mostly of the words "warm fuzzy warm fuzzy warm fuzzy"
I am indeed blessed.
Posted by Meredith at August 28, 2002 01:27 AM