Jens asks: ARE Birthdays Happy?

It was nearly two years ago that I had the worst birthday of my life. I've had many bad birthdays but this one was the bad-est. There were many problems. I had just come back from a terrible trip to Vancouver. I went there because...God told me to (?). What she was thinking? I don't know. I audited a class at Regent on the writings of Charles Williams. I love him. (He influenced many writers. "The Place of the Lion" was written before C.S. Lewis created Aslan. Check it out). I fell in love with a writer, so that was good. I also got parasites. My girls drove me down and it was at a patio along the ocean in White Rock that a bird shit in Lane's food. I thought mine was okay until I was finishing up and then realized that there was grey on my tomato. I was ILL the whole three weeks that I was there. The trip wasn't all Williams and sickness, I also had time to hang out in the downtown east side. Man I "love" slums.

So, I got back from this bizarre trip where I was so sick and so confused and so .... what the eff God? and I came home to craziness. There were people at my house ALL the time. And I'm not talking about "Heidi-people" I'm talking about people that I sometimes didn't want to be around. I come home from this excruciating trip and my home is not my home. My "home" is filled with roommates' friends until really late and I and just want it all to end.

I was looking for a job and thought that I could maybe settle for just a job. So I started at a coffee shop in a grocery store. And I had to wear a little hat. I was there for three days. On my third day I woke up and I was 25 and I was going to a shitty job where I had to wear a little hat and I freaked out and when I got home at the end of the day, I called the manager and quit and lied and said that I had another offer more in my field. Then I cried again. And then my friends took me to a patio with terrible music. And THAT was my worst birthday ever.

The next year, I went to the zoo during the day. Ate good food. Went to Wilco. This year, I'll be going to see Spoon. I think I'm on a roll. Sorry about all the birthday talk, but if I don't bore you, WHO will I bore?

It's my grandpa's birthday on the 28th and I discovered that he shares the same birthday as Rousseau. So, I decided to put a quote on his birthday card:

"Watch a cat when it enters a room for the first time. It searches and smells about, it is not quiet for a moment, it trusts nothing until it has examined and made acquaintance with everything.” Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778).

And THAT is why we study him today.

Jens, thanks for posing that important question. The answer is: sometimes.