I had something really important to say, but very little time and space to say it, so now I’ve forgotten what I was going to write about. It was something meaningful and deeply philosophical, but since it’s flown out of my mind, I’ll have to wait till later. In the meantime, I’ll tell you how my birthday is going so far.

I woke up to a lovely kiss on the forehead from husband, whispering, “Happy birthday, Pixie” right before he went to work. I slept in for about another hour and woke up, to find emails and notices full of birthday wishes. I hopped onto AIM, and saw Jenbug’s away message, “HAPPY BIRTHDAY, HELEN!!” Instantly, I am so gratified that this is such a change from even 5 years ago, when hardly anyone remembered my birthday, let alone wished me well for it. I haven’t even really started my day and there were already people wishing me good tidings for the day. I don’t need gifts, I don’t need cards, I don’t need parties.

I just need people to recognize me. One of my fears as a child was to be forgotten. I told Jenbug today that this was one of the reasons why I just stopped telling people when my birthday was. If they don’t know, then they can’t actually forget, right? I’ve been proven wrong in the recent years, when I realized more and more people made it a point to remember, and I was pleasantly surprised. I got so many calls today, from family, from friends, from even acquaintances online who I don’t really know very well. Sisser gave me a weird ass voicemail message wishing me happy birthday. She sounded like she had an accent and just stepped out of China or something. But it was cute, nonetheless.

I’m grateful for this life I lead. I’m grateful for the positive attention. I’m grateful. Period.