i'd beat jesus

...in a who could live longer competition. oh sorry, is that sacrilegious? am i offending people? pfft, lighten up.

sigh... another year older.

birthdays aren't as much fun as they used to be. no more roller skating parties, pin the tail on the donkey, pointy hats and noisemakers, or loot bags with chintzy gifts. sniff sniff... yeah, those were the good ol' days.

 i remember one year, probably when i was in grade 2 or 3, scented erasers were all the rage. one of the pieces of "loot" at my party was this red eraser in a tube, designed to look kind of like lipstick , that smelled of strawberries. it was heavenly! all the kids loved that eraser, it was the most talked about loot of the year. for months after my birthday, kids could be seen at school, huddled behind their desks, sniffing greedily at their strawberry erasers. that was a good year.

for most of my elementary school years i had my parties at the Saints roller rink. and even though i was terrible on skates (still am), i loved having my birthdays there. there was a special "birthday room" where we'd sit to eat and have cake. it was near the front, and it was raised up so everyone would pass by and see how special i was.

in junior high i had murder mystery parties. everyone dressed up in costumes and tried to ferret out the killer, all while enjoying angel food cake and raspberries. those were fun too, except i always wanted to be the killer and never was.

in high school i was the first one to turn 18 so a big boozy house party was in order. and back in those days it didn't require much to get a buzz... just a few sickeningly sweet coolers/alcopops and i was "drunk". woohoo! i'm an adult; getting older is awesome!!

of course not all birthdays have been that fantastic. there was my 19th: that terribly lonely birthday i spent on the other side of the world. no phone calls from friends or family, no birthday wishes from caring co-workers, no one to have so much as a birthday drink with me. i got home to a dark, empty flat. i spent that evening writing letters to friends back home, sipping jack daniels until i was utterly plastered, drinking straight from the bottle, and crying like a baby. yeah, that birthday scores low on the fun scale.

oh, so many birthdays. there were birthdays at clubs and there were birthdays in pubs. i danced on speakers; i fell off chairs. i've celebrated in canada, new zealand, scotland, and china. i can think back and remember every birthday i've had since i was about 6 years old. today, my parents, brother and sister each sang me the birthday song. i got lots of birthday wishes at work and on facebook. i got flowers from blair. tonight, i'll trudge through the freshly fallen snow (oh so much of it!), have a few beers with a few friends, and add another birthday to the list

.