My Birthday is Coming Up.....

My birthday is coming up. Next Wednesday. November 26. You might thinks it's a little odd for a grown woman to be advertising that, but in the words of our school librarian, when it comes to the birthday thing, I got "gipped."

You see, my arrival, oh-so-many years ago was perfectly timed to allow my mother to eat Thanksgiving dinner. I was a Turkey Baby. That's right. Born at 10:45 in the morning -- with plenty of time for Mom to ooh and aah over me before digging into a plate of turkey & dressing -- and knowing her, plenty of cranberry sauce. And don't forget the pie. She never passed up dessert.

At first thought, it might seem kind of cool to be born on Thanksgiving. It's a festive time of year. People are into celebrating.

Not so. Because what people are celebrating and being all festive about has nothing to do with birthday cake. (Which, I might add, is one of my absolutely favorite foods!)

My drama was compounded by the fact that, while I shared a birthday with my cousin Monty, my Granny Lloyd and cousin Marty shared their birthday on the very next day. So even if my birthday happened to fall on Thanksgiving again, we celebrated Granny's. As an adult, I can see that that was the perfect way to do it. But as a kid -- not so much fun.

You know how kids get to wear a birthday crown at school on their birthdays?

Not me. We weren't in school.

Very few of my birthday parties were held on my actual birthday.

But oh, my sweet Mom tried hard. I remember one birthday when we were celebrating Thanksgiving with all the Lloyds down at the armory. This was one of those years when my birthday fell on Turkey Day. She bought me a birthday cake and invited Kevin Pruitt (I was madly in love with Kevin Pruitt that year.) to join us. And he did. And it helped. But it still wasn't like a real birthday.

And then there was the year I was "dating" Russ Mantzel -- as much as you can be "dating" a marine who's stationed at Camp Pendleton. (BTW -- this was the last "boyfriend" before the GREAT Biggsy!!!) That year Russ was supposed to come visit our family for Thanksgiving, but didn't make it. I remember Aunt Vell & Uncle Bob came in that year and stayed with us. But the most clear of the memories?? I got food poisoning at Thanksgiving Dinner and spent the entire night on the floor of my parent's bathroom talking to ralph on the porcelain phone. What a birthday. (That was the last year my Granny was with us. I wish I had a better memory!)

Oh! And then the next year Biggsy and I were dating and he tried so hard to make my birthday special. He threw a surprise party at my apartment. It was kind of a mess. For one, I found out about it and worked my tail off cleaning for days before -- that kind of got me all in a tizzy. For another, I worked all day that day and was whipped. AND..... looking back, I'm about 99% sure I must have had PMS. Not a good combination.

So you see, I have a bit of a birthday complex. I've had more of an un-birthday than a birthday all these years. Most people forget because they're all busy with getting ready for Turkey Day and all that jazz -- and that's understandable. For the rest of the entire country, it's the Thanksgiving holidays. But for me, it's my BIRTHDAY WEEK!!