Today is Brandon?s birthday party. Pretty soon we?ll be going over to his house for a family party.
Birthdays are really special when you are a kid. The best thing of all are the presents when you?re a kid. Next best after that would be the cool games, like pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey. As you get older, I would say the best part is being with family and friends.
I don?t remember many of the kid parties I had when I was little. There is one that stands out a little more not only because there are pictures but also I can remember little snippets of it here and there.
After I was 10, the family parties stopped because we moved to Maryland and the rest of the family was in New York. I can remember a few of my birthdays but not many. I know that there was a cake and a special dinner but by then I began to realize that birthdays meant growing up but not feeling much different. I anticipated being 16 and was really bummed out to realize I felt the same as I did the day before, when I was 15. When I was 18, I remember writing something like Now I can vote and I can drink but there?s no one to vote for and nothing to drink. Big deal.
I remember other birthday parties that were a lot of fun. When my mom was 39, we threw her a surprise birthday. It was great. All of my parents? deaf friends were there and my mom was totally surprised. We?d normally visit this other couple and their kids cuz the parents liked to play cards and that is what my mom thought she was doing. She was so moved, she cried and cried. She had a lot of fun!
One July after I?d moved back to NY, we (meaning my aunt & uncle & cousins & I) came down to Maryland to visit my parents and brother. It was his birthday, and he was kinda pleased to have the attention. He sang ?Happy Birthday to me? and blew out the candles on his cake. My aunt picked the cake up to slice it and suddenly, on a crazy impulse, she pushed the cake in my brother?s face. Everyone was totally shocked at first but then all of us laughed so hard we were rolling.
I remember planning a surprise party for my first husband, Rich. He didn?t much like surprises ? or so he said ? and this one was going to be a doozy! A friend of mine from work had a side job dressing up as a gorilla in a white tux and top hat and he?d sing. How could I resist this? He agreed to come to the party and sing a parody of our wedding song, ?As Time Goes By?. It was great! Rich wasn?t too surprised by the family party in his father?s back yard. But when that gorilla showed up, the look on his face was priceless!
I have often thought that I would enjoy a party like that, more now than when I was younger. Little kids and older people ? maybe those are the people who love birthday parties the most. As a teenager and young adult, many are still into that whole ?cool? image and a birthday party would be totally embarrassing.
I have outgrown all that. Now I love being silly on my birthday. I?ll go to a place like Bennigans or Applebees and get a balloon hat and ask for the waiters to sing ?Happy Birthday? to me.
Brandon is still a kid. He is nine years old and I?ll bet he has a great day. He may not remember this particular birthday but someday years from now he might look back and appreciate his family coming together for him.
One of the things I do to try and keep writing actively is go to different writing prompt sites. Here is one that shows up on Sundays and it?s fun to do.
Unconscious Mutterings:
I say ? and you think:
This is a silly little paragraph. The idea is to take a character and some words and try to do something with it. This particular one was Peter Pumpkin Eater given praise for smashing magic carpets and I almost thought, nah this is too dumb. But then I decided to try it anyway.
Peter Pumpkin Eater given praise for smashing magic carpets which were soaked in crazy glue by three blind mice and left to dry on a line. Once the glue dried, the magic carpets took off but lost all sense of direction and divebombed the flea market of Fairy Tale Town. Peter Pumpkin Eater, who was prowling the market looking for a good deal on pumpkins, thought quickly and averted a magic catastrophic event by grabbing a large shovel and smacking the carpets dead on. The force of his swings shattered the carpets into hundreds of pieces that showered the surrounding area. Greatful residents of Fairy Tale Town donated an extra large pumpkin to Peter Pumpkin Eater so that he might add on to his home after finishing several hundreds of delicious pies.