The nice thing about facebook is you get so many people wishing you a happy birthday. It's almost overwhelming--and it's such a small thing, too. It's just so many people doing such a small thing.
The well-wishes started on the 28th (maybe even earlier, but I'm not going to scroll back to check). Dane let me know how many days old I would be on this birthday sometime around 11:30 the night before (15,706 days, in case you're wondering). From there, the birthday wishes began trickling in... several people mentioned posted some before 5:00 this morning... and by the time Say sent me a birthday text at 8:50 or so this morning (right when a student came to my desk to ask for help--and I had forgotten to turn my phone down! I just blamed him and told him if he didn't turn off his phone I would take it away...) I'd received... well, lots.
Bowman had made Bs & Gs (well, really EMs & Gs, as Sam's didn't have any biscuits when he went in, so he had to buy English muffins... slightly different taste, but I'm more about the gravy anyway) for the staff this morning in honor of my birthday.
And there were lots of staff e-mail well-wishes for me and the other staff members (two others, no lie) celebrating a birthday today. Ruth also sent a very colorful e-mail.
I haven't been eating with the kids in the cafeteria for a while, so Mrs. Manchion had to get me down to the cafeteria early when going to pick them up from lunch. They tried to do the traditional birthday song for my classroom (Older by They Might Be Giants), but the little boom box wasn't loud enough. So they went with the traditional birthday song for the rest of the planet. Kids has made posters and held them up when I walked in. See STILL: Life for those (one refers to this as my 50th birthday, which they thought was great fun--but when I acted offended, I thought the poor girl holding the sign was going to freak out... so I had to tell her I thought it was funny, and was just pretending to be offended. (Seriously, 43 is close enough to 50 as to not really matter at this point... it's not like the difference between 13 and 20, anyway.)
For 6th hour, I received another card from the kids as well as a brownie treat. It was one of those Little Debbie brownies with the colored sprinkle things or whatever the heck they are in the icing. I'm not a huge fan, but--hello, it's chocolate and in not way can be construed as good for you. Of course I ate it!
There were fun well-wishes throughout the day, and when I did the traditional birthday song for a belated half birthday and an upcoming birthday this Sunday in the end-of-the-day Home Room class, people included me in the pointing and motions (I should document this at some point, I guess, so the rest of the world can see what I make the kids suffer through on a birthday or half-birthday (for the summer birthday kids).
My plan time was taken up with teacher stuff, but the team meeting was pretty painless--I was still doing teacher stuff for the first part of it... by the time I got to team, it was pretty much over.
During the last class, I got to practice my "surprise face" for the surprise party I gave myself tonight. (Oddly enough, I never showed up for everyone to yell "Surprise!" But it was still fun.
Got to see Denis & Michael (first guests to arrive), Mia, Diane Davidson, David & Julie (with Tyson), Greg & Trevor, Lisa, Patrick (with Tessa, and later with Jake), Dane, Beth, Kevin, Sara, Matt Shepherd (I hadn't seen him since... probably the early aughts... '01 at the latest, I fear... but I could be way off there), and Ben & Tricia... and later on, Ruth made it, too. I tried putting them in order of arrival, but when Diane showed up I spent a chunk of time talking to her, as I'd not seen her in person since she retired, and only see her on facebook now... or until tonight, anyway.
I got several cards, some nice present (young Tyson brought me Nutter Butters, despite his issues with peanuts... there's a caring two-year-old for you). Ben & Tricia came from the airport (they'd been in D.C.).
The last guests were out by 11:55, and here I am, typing about it.
I've said it before, so if your eyes have not already glazed over, get ready for a glazing: My idea of Heaven is like tonight, but with everybody you've ever known there--this is possible because "My father's house has many rooms..." and any crap that's come between you and anybody else is so much water under the bridge. There's no petty whateverness going on, and nobody is stressing about life stuff... it's just people together, talking and laughing and just... you know... hanging out and stuff.
Oh, and streets of gold.
I'm not saying this is what I expect it to be, but it's what my current idea of it seems to be.
So I'm a blessed person. I've had many crappy birthdays, so I know a great one when it comes along. Usually there's an ice storm involved in my birthday (or at least some freezing rain). This year we got some snow and people heading south might have had a funferrific drive home, but it didn't involve me hanging alone, sort of out of contact with people. Apparently I'm more of a fan of people than I previously believed.
Yes, birthday #43 gets a gold star! Thanks, everyone who made it happen!
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