On the obscure holidays calendar, March 22 is National Goof Off Day. It also happens to be my birthday. Do the two have anything to do with each other? Probably not, but since National Goof Off Day began in 1976 and I was born in 1974, I like to think I had something to do with it. But this noteworthy day also saw the births of historic names like William Shatner, Werner “Col. Klink” Klemperer and world-renowned mime, Marcel Marceau.
I’m not one to usually make a big thing of birthdays anyway, but for reasons I don’t really need to explain, this year felt a little weird. The state of the world being what it is, it occurred to me that Weird Al’s “Happy Birthday” song has taken on all new meaning.
But all that noise aside, I had a really excellent day with my family. I got a nice handmade card from Amelia, and Erin surprised me with an awesome iPad with keyboard, which I now get to use to write this blog.
Perhaps an even cooler gift was the fact that Amelia asked what I was writing, so I explained to her how I was telling stories about our days. She thought that was great and wanted to write her own story. I was super proud to watch her write her very first blog post. (See post here.)
Beyond that, it was a day of watching movies and enjoying each other’s company. We introduced the kids to UHF and The Princess Bride, Erin made some delicious banana bread and chocolate cake, AND I got to take a nap. It was a nice day, so we took a walk and ordered pizza for dinner.
We even had some friends from the neighborhood stop by and sing happy birthday on our front porch. Big thanks to Aline, Dustin, Taryn and Hannah for the serenade. All in all, it was a very solid birthday.
So big thanks to my family here for giving me such a wonderful day, and to all my family and friends in other places whose messages brought a big lift to my day. Times like these we really need to keep our loved ones close, even if we can’t physically be together.
I finished the day with a cigar, an old fashioned and watching Wrath of Khan. I love that movie, and it was particularly resonant because A.) It takes place on and around Kirk’s birthday and deals with themes of finding new purpose with age, and B.) Kirk is forced to accept that he needs reading glasses, which one of these days I may also possibly have to accept.
So I leave you today with Jim Kirk waxing philosophical in the closing moments of Wrath of Khan. “I feel young.”
