Oh My Penny Goodness,

i heard the door shut and i rolled out of bed, avoiding the brick stairs, and began a maddash for supplies. ferreting aroundi n closets and kid supplies. i thought to myself, my most awesome friend should be celebrated. the happy thoughts surrounding your existence are no less diminished a year later.

can any more be said?! its your birth-day. you arrived on earth to be one of the most imaginative lovely caring things in my mind. you arrived so we could have mystical encounters over hot-chocolate. and navigate our way through all of lifes circumstances together over words pauses and sentence breaks. you are a blessing.

 i mean you know i don't have a present per se for you (um yet?) and thanks for not holding it too much against me. it sounds like you have a lovely day planned (look for the unexpected and divine? dare i say hunt for whimsy?). some room for deviation, meandering (tossing pennies at birds... i mean in fountains)-- 33 has got to be good. just the look and sound of it really. i agree with you about the feel and look of #'s. i remember 33 being good even though i had just climbed a volcano at 32 and was completely jobless. the # can't disappoint. no matter how maudlin we become.

i think the thing of it is we grow into our birthdays. we fill the larger numbers out and it takes more time to build word by word and feeling after feeling what the age might mean to us and then what it means after the fact. we're putting stake in something like a solid investment of yields and or recession like shenanigans that produces something by the years end unexpected or unique or even disappointing- but to us would be termed as ridiculous or absurd or even a better story, a more definitive arc. some dip or turn that makes for better reading. as long as your birth day and year doesn't leave you feeling small. as long as it leaves you feeling infinite. and no matter how singular you feel we are right next to you, thanking God for you. this life. this beautiful thing growing most curiously across the continent from me. the skeptical eyebrow raise, the way you described coffee tasting like grass on the 96th floor in that highrise, your head shake at lemon butter slathering, and how that lady didn't get on the elevator with us for obvious reasons. or that reassuring stare that tells me i am not alone... and much and many more.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR FRIEND.

(commense obnoxious yippy skippy dance with hands claps clap clapping.)

Pentilion,

So the day was a success yes? I mean far be it for me to put a stamp of approval on your birthday but? You let me sleep in, which led to the pumpkin orange and sad/happy banner. And you know pedicures- where they may or may not have been chanting blessings over us as they lotioned our legs, and sure we saw 4 vultures circling overhead once we got out of the store and into the parking lot, but i'm sure that's a good omen, and doesn't bare anything whatsover but awesomeness for our possibly impending roadtrip to pennsylvania. They were sort of more to the right of us anyway. And then of course there was the suitcase expedition, because who wants those bastards to have the satisfaction of charging me yet another $20 on the way home. Jerks. American Airlines is getting a letter from me. Is all I'm saying- a 1/2 in over the line? Really? Jerks!

Anyway I digress, so then there was the dress i found-- i mean the dress you found, and your birthday pizza which looked delicious, and the flower purchasing, and the mario karting and the sushi for dinner. All in all win/win right?

I don't know yet (i doubt highly) if my stuff is going to fit into the new suitcase, but whatever, it'll work out. I ate all the rest of the veggie strips by the way. What else, what else- that cake looked amazing... and the frosting admittedly was delicious. And yes, the fish tank, lets do it, that deafening water dropping sound thing is harrowing to the 'nth degree. And tomorrow, tomorrow is the first day of the rest of your life. And it's going to be flippin' sweet.

m.