Happy Birthday to Me..Soon

Yes, yes, tomorrow, February 23rd, is my birthday. I had to really concentrate to not write "2/23/53/ on the board tonight, because I'm so accustomed to writing my birth date on things. There are a lot of exciting things to look forward to tomorrow!

First, my students have been quite persistent this year on wanting to know how old I am. I've made it a policy since I began teaching, 21 years ago, to make them do the math to find out how old I am. I just write the year of my birth on the white board, and then they have to do the subtraction to find out. Every single year, since I started, someone has announced, "You're older than my grandma!"  Yes, and you're younger than my grandchildren! I've always taught 4th grade, so the students are always nine year olds, and they don't have good filters.

I had my saddest birthday at age 7. My aunt made me a cake that had a fashion doll in the center, with her "wearing" the cake as a ball gown. My other aunt made me a new dress---not handed down! My sisters threw me a party. (I got a little bottle of Jergen's lotion...cool.)  But, I was SO SAD. All I remember from the party was standing in the kitchen talking to my mom on the phone, crying because I wanted her home. However...she had just given birth, two days prior, to my little sister, so she couldn't come home from the hospital, yet.

I decided long ago to celebrate my own day in my own way, and just enjoy it! If anyone else remembers, then it is just gravy on top of my own fun. It's easier that way. A couple of times, in the long ago past,  I've allowed myself to let other people make or break my birthday, and that is just not okay. It's MY birthday, I'll have a great time!

I don't understand why people won't celebrate birthdays. To me, it is just so much fun. It's the one day each year that I get to be totally self-centered! I can be happy I'm here on earth, and I call it ME DAY!  Here are some photos to celebrate me:

 

 Sister Connie is combing my "hair." I'm probably 6 or 7 months old.

 

"Driving" the tractor. On the farm, they start us young doing chores.

 

 This is the summer after the sad birthday. I'm holding our baby sister, Lorene,  who was born on Feb. 21st. Notice my Annie Oakley shirt. I wore it, and the vest, and the six-shooters as often as possible.

 Ah, the troubles we had before digital photography. This is my fifth grade school picture. Unfortunate timing for a laugh. My mom bought them, anyway. Sigh.

 Here I am in the botanical gardens in Balboa Park, San Diego. It was a lovely day, 42 years ago, almost exactly.

 

 My mom, Skye, and I, as I headed off for an algebra class at night school. Spring of 1985.

 

This is hiking up a canyon in Ventura County, Sycamore Canyon. We liked to go here. 1992-ish.

  

 Tidepools along the Cali coast, on our way back home from a visit to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, 1991.

(No, I was not the stunt double in "Fatal Attraction.")

 

 This was my first graduation, in 1993, from Cal State Northridge.

  

This was the graduation from UNLV, 2013 with my Master's degree.

 This is last summer, at the ocean, in San Diego county. 

This is where I'd love to be every single day...at the ocean.