12.22.04

Happy birthday to me
Happy birthday to me
La! La! La!

I'm going to start writing my age in Roman numerals. XL has a ring that 40 lacks, don't you think?

Up this morning before dawn. Mater left a card on my bathroom counter for me. She put an "excessively saccharine" notice on it so I could manufacture some emergency insulin. Taking the sweetness in stride, I said awwwwwwwwww to myself, and trundled off to work.

This afternoon I stopped at the grocery to pick up a bottle of wine and cat snacks. Oh shit. I am turning into one of those people. Oh well.

I got carded. Carded, on my 40th birthday. In a grocery store. During the day. Under, and here's the astonishing part, fluorescent lights. Ho-ho-holy shit. *beam* I thanked the cashier. Wouldn't you?

Then I went back to the house. Sitting on the front step was a vase filled with flowers, and a teddy bear with balloons. Hato-kun said that he'd be sending me something, so I wasn't surprised. Still, I am tickled. I opened the front door, and heard a delivery truck drive up the block. The truck stopped, and the strapping, young delivery-dude hopped out bearing a flower box.
"Expecting flowers?" he said. I gestured weakly at the balloons, bear and flowers still on the step and laughed.
"Here you go," he said, handing me the box, "Happy birthday."

They were flowers from Hato-kun. A dozen pale violet roses that are sitting next to me as I write. They smell divine. I've also got the bear and balloons next to me. Kali-cat is curious about the balloons (she's never seen balloons before), making stopped-by-water lunges at the ribbons, and sniffing the greenery of the roses.

My high school friend, GuY, sent flowers in honour of my venerable *koff* age as well. It's a beautiful arrangement and came with a wonderful note.

I'm grinning about six inches wider than my actual face.

In case you aren't yet convinced of my true dorkiness, here is

1964

Clifford D. Simak won the Hugo for his story, Way Station.
Jean-Paul Sartre won the Nobel prize in literature.

Some books that came out that year:
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Roald Dahl
A Moveable Feast Ernest Hemingway
You Only Live Twice Ian Fleming (who also died that year, in August)

I am tickled that Dr. Strangelove; or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb came out the same year I did. As did A Hard Day�s Night, Goldfinger, three (!!!) Elvis movies Viva Las Vegas, Roustabout and Kissin� Cousins, Fistful of Dollars, A Shot in the Dark and let�s not forget My Fair Lady. (I grudgingly acknowledge Mary Poppins.)

Kemeny and Kurtz created BASIC.
Ranger 7 sent back the clearest (up to that point) pictures of the moon. Remember, we hadn�t gotten there yet.

The Stanley Cup was won by the Toronto Maple Leafs over the Detroit Red Wings.
The Winter Olympics took place in Innsbruck, Austria and the Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan.
World Series (baseball): St. Louis Cardinals over the NY Yankees.
Cassius Clay (a.k.a. Muhammad Ali) beat Sonny Liston in a TKO in the 8th round to win the World Heavyweight Championship.
AFL champions were the Buffalo Bills over the San Diego Chargers and the NFL champions were the Cleveland Browns over the Baltimore Colts�there was no Superbowl. Yet.
England, FA Cup: West Ham United over Preston North End
Northern Dancer won the Kentucky Derby (the first horse out of Canada to do so) and the Preakness Stakes, Quadrangle won the Belmont Stakes.

And specifically, on December 22, 1964:

(I am a shallow creature and hope to gain some sort of strange, reflected glory by the mere chance that these things occurred the same day I was birthed.) (Yeah, I�m a dork.)

Lockheed SR-71 spy aircraft reaches 3,530 kph (record for a jet).
Lenny Bruce is convicted of obscenity stemming from a show in Greenwich Village, NYC.

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