Things Are Shaping Up to Be Pretty Odd

23 is the loneliest number...

...OK, that's not how the song goes, but it was the only way I could introduce my "requisite" birthday blog/post/message/thank you for this year, chronicling my 23rd year of birth last Friday. There is absolutely nothing special about your 23rd birthday, as a friend has told me. He's resulted to calling 23 the "Michael Jordan" year and 24 the "24" year. There is so little to associate with and/or celebrate these years for that we have to associate them with other cultural references associated with them (Jim Carey's "The Number 23" didn't make the cut; maybe next year). That makes me very excited for my birthday.

23: Be like Mike. Shouldn't be too hard for me..

The only thing I can comment on in regards to my birthday is that it's probably the first year that I felt like I've actually grown from the previous year. Not only have I left home and the parents, but I've left nearly all my social networks, I've left the "hometown/home state", and every form of someone really watching over me. I've also left my dependency on my parents... with my parents. Truth, they're still there for me in terms of parental support/counseling/recommendations/experience to share/sometimes home-cooked food sealed and sent express to me/filing my taxes for me, but other than those minute things, I'm on my own! I live in my own place that I pay for completely, I buy all my own groceries with all my own money, I handle/pay all my own bills and insurance; my car is in my name and I handle all of matters concerning it; I own furniture that is all mine! That's probably the biggest thing: picking out my own living room setting. I've got my retirement funds and savings accounts going, funded every 2 weeks by my own real-life paycheck! I sure am making my way through this world!

I also think I've grown up as a person from who I was a year ago. I know, I know, you people out there who talk to me online and read my crap and my jokes and comments, it probably doesn't really seem like it. I still make all the same stupid jokes, etc., but I actually think I've grown as a person, however small that growth has been. Learning to let go of things, learning how petty I can be, how some of the things I used to get irritated with or things I hated about people were pretty stupid grudges to hold on to. I've learned there are a lot more important things in life to concentrate on, a lot more problems that would be better uses of my time and focus, in comparison to some of the stuff that I used to get myself wrapped up in. And it's not to belittle the people who think those things are important; it very much is a matter of where you are in life. I don't want to sound holier-than-thou, but lots of the little things that used to mean the world to you when you were in school and living that life really do become insignificant in the big picture of life grown up. I wouldn't say I'm completely there, but I'm learning.

10 years later, it's still good

Alright, enough of that introspective, "what does it all mean", examination of life as I know it BS! People don't need to read yet another mopey blog (though most everyone's blogs are cliche in some way...)! So I got exactly what you want right HIZZUR in the form of a beautifully crafted limerick of sorts in honor of me and my 23rd birthday from a girl who's muscles are as big as they are Jersey!!!

Magic sticks is his name, in my heart he'll always stay!
Keeping me laughing all the way, especially missing you since last May =(
OOOOOO WACHA SAYYYY (I can't rhyme anymore) <----- GREAT reference to Summer 07!
Really great at writing, doing the fourth year dance you were my favorite
OYFA isn't the same without you, nobody can make sticks appear like you =(
Enjoy your lovely birthday dear, hope you're flying likeee
Zoooooooooooooooooooooooooom <----- Onomatopoeia! I LOVE IT! (and I thank Mr. Robert Stovall, 8th grade English, Kinnick Middle School, Yokosuka, Japan, for teaching me what that was)

And just cause the song happened to jump up on my playlist, here's a video from one of my faves, SAVES THE DAY!!!



(The song is "Sell My Old Clothes, I'm Off to Heaven")