Birthdays (and other things)

Yesterday was the birthday of one of my best friends. He turned 21. He's also halfway across the world in the United Kingdom, so that's neat. He's been there for over a year and a half now.

I wrote the above paragraph earlier today. I can't remember why exactly I felt the need to tell the world, the tiny, tiny world of my blog, that one of my boys had his birthday. It felt important at the time . . .

Nothing of great importance has occurred lately, though. Today it was 65 F so that was fantastic. Because of that I've worn shorts the past few days, which is also fantastic. Series 6 of Doctor Who is now on Netflix which has given me something lovely to watch that I haven't seen in a while. Becca and I also got Panda Express for dinner tonight; I even have some left over for my breakfast. Over this last weekend I got some quality hugs as well. Some of my friends give dang good hugs. It's been a while since I had a truly satisfactory hug and I only realized that when my friend Phil hugged me, like, at least three times over the past two days. (You know a hug is good when you immediately think, "More hug, please" when you stop hugging.)

So while things of "importance" haven't happened, some pretty nice things have, I suppose. I've needed these little reminders of good life. Another thing that helped was talking to my journalism friend Taylor. She's a year younger than me but we've gotten into the program at the same time. Today we talked about the whole "sophomore slump" thing. She's kind of in it now and I was kind of in it last year. Expressing how far I've come and all the changes I've experienced in the last year or so was much needed. I've come a long way. Junior year has been quite lovely and I don't think I would change a single thing about it.

I realize I can tie in the whole "best friend birthday" thing. He's one of the reasons last year was bearable and this year is going to be even more fantastic. His letters kept me going through tough stuff. I've learned things about him and he's learned things about me through our letters that we probably never would have known otherwise. Letters are nice that way. (When's the last time you received a handwritten note? Or better yet, when's the last time you wrote one?)

In other big news, today is ShayCarl's birthday! If you don't know who he is, make sure to check out the Shaytards right quick. He's the guy who made it possible for me to write the post on happiness being a choice.

To leave you with some ShayCarl wisdom now: The secrets to life are hidden behind the word cliche.

Last YouTube video I watched: Hank is an Adorable, Drunk Princess

What was I saying?

I'm sure you've all had those moments where with a strike of inspiration you get the great idea for a blog post, and then you get too busy to write it at that time but don't worry, you'll REMEMBER this idea. Because it is AWESOME. Apparently that's not the case . . .

So yeah, I'm writing a blog post about what it's like to forget to write a really great blog post.

Today there is no school because of MLK Day, so that's nice. I'm currently sitting at my desk in running shorts and an old t-shirt for a club I was never in whilst not attending a certain high school. But I still got a shirt. (One of my roommates was the president of said club and had extras so she gave me one). It will be a day of a little homework and the making of homemade cinnamon rolls. I'm pretty excited for that second part.

I'm scrambling to think of an actual topic for this blog post. I feel like I've done enough lists and bizarre compilations of my thoughts. How about this topic: birthdays.

As of today, it is exactly one month until my 20th birthday. No longer will I be a teenager. To commemorate such an event, my roommate Lorraine, whose birthday is 11 days before mine, and I made a list of 20 things to do before we turn 20. (I'll post the list in its entirety at a later date). There is just something strange about turning 20, at least to us. We feel as if we have to get in some last teenage things before we ride off into the eternal sunset of adulthood. 20 for us means adulthood for whatever reason, though I doubt we'll act much more mature . . . Nor do I really want to.

Birthdays are an interesting concept. At least the celebration part of them is. As a kid I was obviously very excited for people to honor me on my special day. I always loved getting Legos, which is what I often received from my parents even in my high school years. However, some time when I was in middle school I became the kind of person who didn't reveal that it was their birthday. I lived, and still do live, by the logic that the people who really know me and really care will know when my birthday is regardless of whether I make it known to the general public. Of course I drop hints in the weeks before my birthday but only to people I've recently met who wouldn't know my birthday from any other day of the year. I would venture to say that 7 days before my birthday I don't even bring it up; I only talk about it if someone asks something along the lines of, "Hey, isn't your birthday coming up?"

College has been an interesting experience in regard to my birthday. I was blessed with 3 roommates freshman year who had birthdays in February. All within 3 weeks of each other. 4 out of 6 girls had February birthdays, so it was actually pretty cool. There was no way around them knowing my birthday but I love them more than words can describe so I was more than happy to share that knowledge with them. Besides that, I told very few people about it; the only other people that knew were my friends Matthew and Jashua. Matthew was the one who ended up making my birthday special. It's a shame he's not around this year to do the same.

So there you have it. A little insight into what I think of birthdays; well, it's mostly what I personally think of my own birthday. Consider it a rite of passage if I actually tell you the specific date of my birthday, guys.

Songs I listened to whilst writing this post: Us by Regina Spektor; Hedwig's Theme (This is my new thing. I listen to music so often that it's the logical way to end my posts).