My Birthday

And now I'm 19. It says so on my Blogger profile. I've gotten a bajillion Facebook wall posts today. I hung out with friends. And the Internet in my room isn't working, so I have to blog from the Sutherland Hall computer lab... again. But this time, I really want to get this done by midnight so that the greatest day of the year can be represented.

It's no big deal, though. My friend Corey's actually working here right now. And he's cool.

And speaking of the greatest day of the year, the administrator of the Facebook group entitled what else but "January 4 is the greatest day of the year!" sent a mass message to everyone this morning. And since the group picture is a little cupcake with a candle on it, this was what I woke up to. Actually, no. My mother called me before my first class. But the cute little cupcake was the first visual representation that today would be a good day.

I don't know why I'm so tired. It must be going back to classes. And yet I have all this energy (that's probably sugar from the orange soda I had with dinner). I invited Emily and Jennifer (a.k.a. "Howdy") up to my room to give them birthday fudge and birthday Rice Krispies Treats. Then, once we started annoying my roommate enough, we moved to the other wing of the building and hung out in Howdy's room until her roommate came in with her boyfriend. Now I'm here, and on some sort of sugar high that prevented me from enjoying my birthday gâteau today. I shall enjoy it soon.

My mother and brother called me minutes before my birth moment and sang to me over the phone literally as I was signing Emily and Howdy into my wing of the dorm. Imagine trying to spell other people's names when all you're hearing is "Happy birthday to you."

PHYS 0175 and ENGR 0715 both went well today; not much to report there. And the first song we played in concert band rehearsal was Salvation is Created by Pavel Tschesnokoff. Most beautiful song ever, and this was an even more beautiful arrangement then what I'd been used to hearing (which was pretty darn beautiful). I have loved this song for years.

The only bad news is that the concert band's spring concert will probably be the weekend of 14-15 April, which already entails an all-day freshman conference (which is mandatory) and two Heinz Chapel Choir concerts (which are pretty darn close to mandatory). So maybe if I speak up, our director will be a bit careful as to setting the exact starting time of the concert.

Good news to balance that: The concert band tour is more or less set in stone for 30 April-01 May. Apparently last year's got cancelled for some reason, and people were disappointed.

Apparently Pitt's dining services have something in their system that alerts cashiers to your birthday when they swipe your card on that day. And so, being half Italian and having had pasta on my birthday for God-knows-how-many years, I went to have pasta for lunch. And the lady swiped my card, and then announced to everyone working there that it was my birthday. She then proceeded to ask me what I would like for my birthday drink. Um... Pepsi? I don't know; I hadn't even ordered a drink, and yet by eating lunch at the right place on the greatest day of the year, I had somehow earned a jumbo 32-oz. beverage.

But the surprise of that just made my day; it truly did. I don't know why, but it's the little things that count. Emily got me uncooked spaghetti and a self-made hollowed-out book for Christmas/Birthday. Unfortunately, the box of uncooked spaghetti can't fit inside the hollowed-out book, so my spaghetti-eating habit can't remain secret. Oh, well. :)

And I don't know how many people have told me I should go to Canada and drink today. I have class at 09:00.

Random tangent: Up two paragraphs. Is that the first emoticon I've ever used on this blog? Wow. Go me! It's my birthday, and I suppose that means I'm 19 now, aren't I? And no, that's not my cake above. And no, I didn't specifically look for a picture of a cake with my name on it. I just found it randomly. How appropriately random.

Photo Credit: Agape Christian Fellowship at Princeton University. Search result provided by Google Images.