Monday, May 12, 2008

Obligatory Birthday Post

My weekend away was too short, but as always, an adventure. The weather was excellent, and I think I even got a sunburn on my lips. I was in Toronto with my Better Half and his dad to see a percussion concert at Roy Thompson Hall. Watching Zakir Hussein play the tabla is dizzying, because if you look hard, you can't see his fingers move. And this dude from Uzbekistan blew my mind.

The train ride home was a bit sluggish, but if I were writing this a year ago, I would be telling you about how the trains in India are infested with cockroaches and how the toilets make me gag a little. I'll take a chronically-late train with a functioning toilet this time around. Has it really been a year since I was in India? Holy hell. I may not miss the plumbing, but I still think about the food.

Which reminds me... I usually travel in May, but this year I'm staying put. Mostly because I am broke, but also because I have a few precious weeks of vacation time every year and I want to save them for a rainy (or snowy) day. May is usually a great time to travel, because everything is warming up, and then *cough* I get to miss my *cough* birthday.

Yeah. It's my birthday tomorrow. I usually slyly arrange to be out of town, not because I hate my birthday, but because I don't like people to make a fuss over it. There's also the fact that I am younger than I look and I've learned to dread people's reactions when they find out my age. When I was sixteen, people would ask me if I was married. When I was nineteen, people would ask me if I had any children. When I was doing my undergrad, people would ask me if I was doing my PHD. Maybe it's because I always spent a lot of time in grungy bars, or maybe because my friends are all over the age map... But frankly, I can't figure out why it always stumps people. Anyway. I just heard enough of "You're HOW old? Really?" and decided that traveling is more fun than party hats. (Ironically, if anybody tried guessing my age based on the amount of profanity I use, or on my ability to make anything sound dirty, they would peg me at about 14)

Although I work during the day tomorrow, My BH is taking me out for dinner afterwards and then I have it on good authority (aka my stubborn mind) that we are going to make out. All night. Wicked. And as an early birthday present, apparently I was #1 on an album chart in Windsor! I also got a pretty generous compliment here, so thanks for that, campus radio. You're the greatest.

5 comments:

XUP said...

Happy Birthday (again). I think it's the your old soul eyes and your dazzling array of talents and accomplishments that make you seem older than you really are. Or, it could be all the drinking. Have a good one.

Anonymous said...

Happy Birthday Andrea! I agree with XUP. It's not your looks that make people think you're older - you look like you're the ideal age. But you do have a certain ageless, timeless quality about you.

Have a terrific day (and night).

Steve said...

My goodness, that is some damn fine percussion. I'm regretting not going to see Zakir when he was here a couple of weeks ago.

I don't know, if it were me, I'd say that charting higher than Billy f**king Bragg would make for a darn good birthday, even if that and $4 gets you a cup of coffee... :)

Enjoy your day- and enjoy looking older than you are, because when it matters, people will take you more seriously. Me, I'm 33 and people keep mistaking me for a college student in this frickin' town.

Andrea... said...

Thanks guys!!!

Anonymous said...

Happy birthday!

I remember when we celebrated it on a bus on some highway in Europe.

Shawna