"They Say It's Your Birthday"

Wen and Tim took me out for my birthday this evening (even though the actual day isn't until tomorrow...but it's tough for all of us to go out when Tim has a class tomorrow night, so we did it tonight instead). We went to a Japanese steakhouse (which is always fun) for dinner, then retired to the apartment for cake and beer. They got me some cool stuff: the movie Sneakers, a little clip-on book light, a Borders gift card, and a cat-apult (which, sadly, isn't built to launch our real cats across the room...but I could probably construct one if I really wanted to). It was a fun little evening out, all things told; very low-key, but a good time.

I get to spend my actual birthday working, which I'm sure will just be bucketloads of fun. I'm not sure Monday is the absolute worst day to have a birthday on, but...okay, yeah, it is. Oh well.

This weekend (Saturday) was also my maternal grandfather's birthday. I called to wish him a happy birthday Saturday evening, but something got messed up and I didn't get a chance to chat with him, though I did on Thursday, so I guess that's okay. I'm sure I'll talk with him tomorrow.

Mom apparently moved out of the house this weekend. It's weird, now, thinking that neither of my parents lives in Shawnee anymore. This whole divorce thing has been strange enough from the beginning, but it's brought about changes I hadn't even thought of. For instance, we won't be a permanent fixture at the Daylight Donut Shop anymore. We've been eating breakfast there at least a couple times a week for the past about 20 years. Mom's worked behind the counter when they're shorthanded. We've had birthday donuts there (huge donuts that the whole family could eat on and still not finish). We exchanged Christmas presents and spent many great mornings in that donut shop. And while I know we'll go back and visit whenever we're in Shawnee--we'd be in trouble if we didn't--it'll be different.

The second weird thing is that the phone number we've had since we moved to Shawnee--(405)275-5898--isn't our phone number anymore. I've thought of that number as my "home phone number" since I was old enough to memorize the digits. It just seems weird that I could dial that number tomorrow and it wouldn't connect me to some member of my family. It was a sort of permanent fixture in my life: even if our address changed, our number remained the same. Not now, though.

Neither thing is really all that major by itself, though together they sorta really make the divorce seem final and real in a way that dad's call back on New Year's Eve saying it was final didn't.

Anyway, tomorrow's the birthday. Yeah, I have to work, but it could be worse. I could be unemployed.

~chuck

Song of the Moment: Glen Phillips, "Courage"