It’s My Party And I’ll Cry If I Want To
My very first memory is of my 2nd birthday. I was wearing a red sweatshirt and had a cake with a plastic Snoopy on top of it. After eating we left the restaurant and were walking to the car through the rain and I was clutching Snoopy in my hand. My mother has confirmed this memory as accurate. That was 1979. The following are my memories of some of my other memorable birthdays.
May 24, 1991
It was a Friday the day I turned 14 and as was family tradition I was given the honor of choosing dinner. At that age my favorite food was Brown’s Chicken and that’s what I wanted so when I got home from an errand with my father to find out we were having pizza I was miffed. Loudly miffed. Miffed loud enough that all my friends who were hiding in the living room could hear me complain that I wanted chicken NOT pizza before they jumped out and yelled surprise. I was overwhelmed and thrilled that my family had thought to throw me a party. It was amazing that they’d cared so much to pull together all my friends behind my back for this great big swimming party. Yes, swimming party. All my friends went swimming except for me. I had my period. SURPRISE!
May 24, 1994
With birthdays wearing on me due to their never going quite as I had planned in my mind I requested that we not make a big deal of my 17th. My parents tried to talk me out of it but I insisted that I just wanted to let the day sort of slide by without a fuss. They obliged. No one said happy birthday to me. There was no cake, no presents and not even a family dinner. Nothing. When I got home from work that night in tears my father asked what was wrong and I screamed that they forgot my birthday to which he replied, “We didn’t forget, you said you didn’t want to do anything.” I forgot to read my teenager to parent translation dictionary where it clearly defines don’t make a big deal as completely ignore. My fault.
May 24, 1995
Several bad birthdays under my belt I expected a little better for my 18th. I was coming of age, I was an adult. I could start voting. I could also have a screaming match with my parents regarding whose fault it was that number 17 had gone so wrong. Then I could run to my boyfriends house where his mother would see me for the first time and misinterpret my not politely introducing myself through hysterical sobs as pure malice and begin a 4 year long vendetta against me.
May 24, 1998
The day before I was at a party thrown by the aforementioned boyfried who was by then the father of PK and my ex-boyfriend but still my best friend. He had turned 21 the week before and decided to have the party for both us. During the course of the evening I had one drink while he had several. Most of the other party goers had more than they could handle as well. As the clock struck 12am, my birthday, I found myself tucking in several friends who were in the process of passing out. By 12:30am I was cleaning vomit off of PK’s stuffed animals who had the unfortunate fortunes to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
May 24, 2002
This was the year that decided to turn my birthday pity parties into faint memories by taking control of the whole affair and throwing myself the most kick ass party ever. All my friends came, there was food and music and laughter. There was my brother in law playing bartender and mixing up enough frozen strawberry margaritas to keep me double fisting all night long. There was even a cake with a scepter and tiara which I used to crown myself the Queen. I made a drunken toast and all was right with the world. Then everybody left except my former high school sweetheart who I ended up kissing (probably my fault but it’s a bit hazy). SB can thank her existence indirectly to that night.
May 24, 2005
Two kids and one boyfriend trying desperately to make amends for continual stupidity comprised my 28th birthday. After a long day at work all I wanted was to come home and not have to think for the rest of the day. I picked up the kids, got inside and then spent the next hour fielding questions from the boyfriend about what I wanted for dinner, where he should go to get it, how he should get there, what would be easiest and on and on ad nauseum. I finally got sick of it and ended up with chicken strips from Jewel, strawberries dipped in burned chocolate and a purple helium butterfly balloon for a present which was promptly stolen by SB. Boy, if you’re reading this, just so you know, I lied. That wasn’t okay.
Today
Arriving at work I got an ecard from my distraction which was sweet. No one at work remembered until my boss was flipping through her calendar around 11 and saw it written in. She then asked me to pick where I wanted lunch from and bought lunch for the whole office in my honor. I got a few more ecards and emails from friends who I didn’t even expect to remember so that was all swell. The sky was clear and sunny, the music on the radio calming and the traffic all moving. As I spoke with my distraction a gorgeous stormed moved in a broke overhead. And then he told me he lied to me. Well, not lied, just blatantly avoided answering the heart of a question that I’d asked yesterday. I knew today was too good to be true. Oh, and not a single person from my family has managed to pick up the phone to wish me a happy birthday.
Did I put my karma on backwards?
