Birthday Doldrums

Try not to have a birthday on a Monday. It just gives off the wrong vibe.
Today was my 34th birthday. Now it's nighttime, and I can talk about this birthday and compare it with others. It was probably in the 15th percentile. As a new parent, you wind up using the word "percentile" a lot. You'd probably feel pretty dissappointed if a doctor so much as uttered the word 15th percentile around your baby.
But this is different. Birthdays are fucked up for adults.

Me? I am lucky. I have friends who make a fuss over me on my birthday. I've been taken out to dinner twice. I've gotten birthday cards, phone calls, e-mails, checks. If I weren't impossible to please, I might say it was a swell day. I am getting to the point where I like having birthdays behind me. I get nervous thinking about who might not call and how I'm going to handle it. Like I said, birthdays are fucked up for adults and even more so for 34 year old children.