In Which k Almost Forgets Her Own Birthday. Again.

It was my birthday last Saturday.

And I FORGOT!

Then, later in the day, I remembered again.

Luckily, I remembered it just before Walter called to wish me a happy one. So I wasn't too startled. Then he called a few more times to say it again. Just to be sure.

That night, kdad called too. Scientists don't usually fit that dour stereotype we see on TV. Nope. kdad has a wonderful sense of the absurd.

That's why k has taken to singing *Happy Birthday* to him over the phone each June.

Well...guess what.

Didja guess? Didja?

Yup.

This time he sang it to ME.

I was giggling so hard I almost choked.

Then I said, --Is this payback time?--

--Payback? What do you mean?--

--For the times I sang it to YOU! Is this why they say, *Paybacks are hell?*--

(see, k has a voice that is NOT a singing one. No. The only ones in her life that ever loved to hear her sing were her cats. And...surprisingly, suddenly, so says her man, too. Hmmm.)

OH, we had a very fine time.

kmom got on the phone and said Happy B-day too. But she wouldn't sing.

Then Walter called again. I told him about kdad singing the b-day song. He decided he couldn't let my dad do that, unanswered.

So Walter commenced to singing the song to me, too.

I had to help him out with the words a little bit. He's Not From Here.

I didn't realize until Tuesday that I didn't get any presents. That was perfectly fine, of course. It was a very nice birthday, and that means a lot.

See, for many years, my birthday was jinxed. Almost every awful event of my life, since the age of 15, has happened on my birthday.

Walter fixed it. When he came into my life, the birthday horrors just stopped. He did some sort of magic there, and gave my birthdays back to me, and every one that passes with no calamity is sweet beyond words.

Like last year, when the lizard hopped up on my shoulder to say *Happy Birthday.* I had opened up a plastic yard bag that was moving around, and out she hopped - I'd unwrapped her, as it were, just like a present.

Like this one, when my dad and my man sang me *Happy Birthday* on the phone, and my mom politely but firmly explained she would not, but Happy Birthday anyway, daughter!

Still and all...I have decided to splurge a little bit and get myself something I really really want, but can't rightfully fit into Mr. Budget just now. So it's going to be a real present. You know. Something a bit naughty budget-wise, a splurge, something I'm dying to have. Something pretty. How a present really should be.

This one's useful, too, but that's just an accident of fate.

Okay. When my neighbor across the street arrives from his long-distance commute - he flies in every Thursday night from Minneapolis - I'll ask him for help with it. I could haul it in my Saturn, especially with my great cargo carrier, but he's got an SUV.

And I'm going to buy about 20 big bags of pine bark nuggets.

I am SO excited I can't stand it!