35

Yesterday was my birthday. I find birthdays really compelling…about 3 years into working at the University where I was before the one before this, I discovered I shared a birthday with the department patriarch. Immediately, there was this strange connection between us: I realized that when he was a child, May 23 was his most favorite day in the world, a day that seemed magically connected to him. And I had the feeling about the same day! (Yes, I know that with 6 billion people on the planet, 16,438,356 on average share any given birthday. So apparently I have a magical connection to 16.4 million people. But I’ve only met about 4 of them so far, so shut up.)

At any rate, we had a busy, lovely day, with morning shopping, lunch out with dear friends, a nap, supper out with family, and a Northern League baseball game to end the evening. Shaun caught me a foul ball, and after the game there were fireworks. A pretty good way to start the slide into the late-30s, I’d say.

To follow in a bloggy tradition of sorts, 35 things about me.
1. I dream of having a fancy, overgrown garden with high walls and wrought iron furniture and lots of vines.
2. Instead of #1, I have a chain-link fence and a lot of dandelions.
3. My favorite fruit? Strawberries. Or maybe kiwis.
4. I’m leaving for Vegas on Monday. Whoo!
5. My dad had a massive stroke when I was 12. My childhood effectively ended that day. He died in 2002, and I miss him everyday still.
6. When I was 8, I decided I wanted to be a poet when I grew up.
7. I like to play croquet sometimes.
8. I bite my fingernails, especially when I’m nervous. I wish I didn’t.
9. Nine is my favorite number.
10. I once bowled a 27.
11. I have carpal tunnel and sleep with braces on my hands. They are not very sexy.
12. My favorite drink is sweet white wine, or Southern Comfort. Depends on the day…
13. I would love to have a standard poodle join our family, particularly if someone else trained her for me. Or a miniature poodle. It has to be a poodle, though, because I’m allergic to everything else, which sucks.
14. My dad used to bring me home animal bones for my birthday. I have 3 deer jaws and a small-ish animal skull. This was my reward for having a birthday during spring planting, when all sorts of treasures got unearthed. My mother was not especially amused by this.
15. I love lefse with butter and sugar. There is nothing better than fresh homemade lefse.
16. I’m a horrible packrat. Not the “save every old newspaper and empty egg carton” kind, but just the general “heaps of stuff all around me” kind. This is a constant battle.
17. When I was 4 my cousins and I were playing cops and robbers and I slipped and fell on broken glass. A small piece got imbedded in the palm of my right hand, and it stayed there until I was 15 and my body decided it wanted the glass out. We had a doctor cut it out just before it pushed its way through (gross, right?).
18. I am a devoted coca-cola drinker, and I wish I wasn’t. But oh, sweet elixir of life….
19. I care for Swiss Chocolate Milk a great deal.
20. My favorite color is red. I like orange and yellow a great deal, too.
21. The redwing blackbird is my favorite bird.
22. It drives Shaun crazy that I have a favorite everything.
23. I am afraid of squirrels. Very afraid.
24. I like to take pictures of fireworks. It's more difficult than it seems.
25. My family still prays in Swedish on special occasions.
26. Shaun sometimes talks like the Muppets’ Swedish chef after we say our family prayer.
27. The trees that held my childhood tire swing were both cut down a few weeks ago.
28. I’m very sentimental about things like #27
29. My two favorite animals are the turtle and peacock. And standard poodles.
30. My favorite kind of pizza is pepperoni and mushroom. Especially fresh mushroom.
31. I sometimes dream I can fly, and when I do I wake up very very happy.
32. Despite #31, I have only flown in an airplane 3 times (well, 6, because each was a round trip). Monday will be my fourth time. Whoo, Vegas!
33. I love my job. I mean, I really love it.
34. The best sign I’ve ever seen was a hand-written one in the bathroom at Ralph’s Corner Bar. On one of those orange and black signs, someone had written in the blank center:
Remember: No Drugs in Your ‘Gina.
35. I try to live by #34, and so far, it’s served me well.

Hope your Memorial Day is full of sunshine and soothing memorially things. Did I mention I leave for Vegas on Monday?