Birthday Idea

As you may or may not know, today is my birthday! Talking to Gordon last night, he came up with a wonderful idea. I was describing this perfect phone that would allow me to do everything on my trip (Thanks Kevin!) . It is a quad-band phone with an additional signal (?) that also works where the four bands don't (i.e. Japan). It is unlocked so I can use it anywhere (after buying the appropriate sim card). It is Wi-Fi enabled (and able to view full web pages) so that I can be sitting at an Internet cafe somewhere and post things to my blog from my phone! I don't know if it plays music, and I don't know if it will let me up-load photos from my camera. Sounds amazing. All this for about $500. Gordon's brilliant idea was to suggest that everyone who wants to keep in touch with me, should sends me $10 for this phone! He has started the ball rolling with the initial $10. -- Great idea, don't you think? I promised him that I would suggest it. I'll leave it up to you to decide what to do with the idea. It might be the push to actually get me to leave -- several people have said to me recently, "Aren't you supposed to be gone somewhere? Like Thailand or something; somewhere far away."

OK, so I can't have my entire birthday entry devoted to a shameless request for presents!

My birthday itself was beautiful! The day was bright and sunny, though a bit chilly (at one point the temperature was the same as my age!) -- and how can anything be bad when it's a beautiful golden fall day! On top of that I got to ride a "bendy" bus into the city. (I don't know if any of you have ever had the thrill of a bendy bus, but it's great! My recommendation, though, it not to sit in the bend itself. It looks like a good idea, but really you don't get to experience the thrill when the bus goes around a corner. I was lucky and got the perfect seat: slightly elevated in the back, facing forward. That way you get to see the bus bend as it goes around the corner. If you are really lucky, you can look at someone from inside the bus, and then see them again by looking out your window and see them looking out their window! Awesome! Some friends and I once gave the bus driver a good chuckle by enjoying our bus ride so much.) Otherwise I ran some errands (it felt great to be getting things accomplished!), and visited with some friends (always a good thing) and generally had a very productive, but relaxed day.

One of the best parts though, was that I got to start it and end it dancing! Rockabilly/Swing on Thursday at Marters -- which bled into Friday (complete with a birthday toast and cake -- from a woman who's birthday was the 2nd) -- and Java Jive at the U. of Chicago that night. And I got to dance with (and keep up with) all the best dancers! (I didn't have a birthday dance, though -- where everyone in the room takes a turn dancing with the birthday person -- maybe next year when I get more practice). Ahh! Smile.

The strangest part of the day, though, was that I almost forgot that it was my birthday -- which is mostly why I didn't tell anyone. I realized at about 5pm on Thursday -- "Hey! It's my birthday tomorrow!" My Mom tells me that happens more and more after 30. I'll let you know.