Belated Birthday Blog

Well, I had a good birthday. Like a little kid, I woke up way too early. Everyone made sure I didn't feel ignored. Most of my coworkers crammed into my office around 10:15 for bagels and chips and a couple rounds of the "Happy Birthday" song. An hour later they took me to Bennigan's for lunch. After work I ran over to church to pay some bills before meeting up with Dad to check out a car I had found online. Another buyer beat us to the car*, so Dad took me to see M:I:III instead.

Interesting notes on my last few birthdays:

~ This birthday was the first since 1997 that I have had either work or school on my birthday.

~ 2005 - Shared the day with Mom for Mother's Day and a couple of family friends celebrating their high school and college graduations. We also managed to squeeze in a trip to the zoo.

~ 2004 - Visited Rooster Days while catching up on old times with Chadana.

~ 2003 - My family sang "Happy Birthday" as Old Faithful went off during our trip to Yellowstone.

~ 2002 - Ropes course week for my New York missions trip, so for my birthday I was forced to stand on the top of a very tall pole. That made the pregnant tarantula I nearly sat on seem quite friendly.

~ 1998 - Senior prom was the same day as my birthday.

~ And since I'm talking about memorable birthday's, I can't leave out 1988. That was the first time my birthday was on Mother's Day when I mistakenly put both orange juice and milk on my Life cereal.


*No problem. I got a great deal on a bright red Kia Rio at the end of the week. On that note, I think I probably have the longest, most dynamic nickname this side of the Mississippi. What started out as "Sarah-5-with-the-blue-car-who's-24" is now "Sarah-5-with-the-red-car-who's-26." With the timing of my car purchase, it changed twice in one week.

Lightening the mood

A survey. Because I can't resist this kind of thing.

1: Grab the book nearest to you, turn to page 18, find line 4. Write down what it says:
"administration noun" (Roget's Thesaurus)

2: Stretch your left arm out as far as you can. What do you touch first?:
A manila file folder

3: What is the last thing you watched on TV?:
CSI:NY

4: A good drink is…:
One that no one else is drinking and doesn't make me gag.

5: Grooming product you don't want to be without:
Colored chapstick

6: With the exception of the computer, what can you hear?:
People conversing downstairs.

7: When did you last step outside? what were you doing?:
This morning when I walked from the car to the office.

8: What are you currently reading?
I'm in between books right now. I have a book from the library sitting in my kitchen, but I don't remember the title.

9: What are you wearing?:
A white tank under a beige blouse with a brown skirt and my tall brown boots.

10: Did you dream last night? What about?:
Of course I dreamed. It was sort of a retelling of Peter Pan - no clue where that one came from.

11: What did you last eat?
Shepherd's pie (Mmm, mmm, mmm) and whole grain club crackers.

12: What is on the walls of the room you are in?:
My old dance shoes, a print of a living room, a caricature of me in my office, a calendar, a print of ships in harbor, and a Serenity cross.

13: Seen anything weird lately?:
My dance friends being themselves.

14: What do you think of this quiz?:
Good time waster.

15: What is the last film you saw?:
Serenity

16: If you became a multi-millionaire overnight, what would you buy first?:
A house on Swan Lake.

17: Tell me something about you that I don't know:
I can sing "This Old Man" in anagram.

18: If you could change one thing about the world, regardless of guilt or politics, what would you do?:
I'm starting to over-analyze this question, so I'm skipping it.

19: Do you like to dance?:
If you don't know the answer to that, you certainly don't know me.

20: Would you ever consider living abroad?:
Yes, I think it would be neat to retire to the Isle of Arran, but of course moving to Scotland can be tricky.

21: Will you pass on this survey?:
Here it is.

Relevant Dreams and Other Opinions

Apparently I do my deepest thinking on current events when I'm asleep. I had quite an interesting dream the other night:

My family were legal Bulgarian immigrants in Russia. In this alternate universe, the Russians relied on Bulgarian oil but treated the Bulgarians like dirt. We considered closing down our oil refineries and leaving the Russians to their own devices but decided to stay when we really thought about the negative impact such a decision would have on innocent people. Meanwhile, a couple of cute little Mexican girls without immigration papers showed up at our factory right before an immigration inspector showed up at our factory. We lucked out and got an inspector that was friendly to the Bulgarians and gave us little grief. He firmly but kindly took the Mexican girls with him, and then I woke up.

Make of it what you will. I'm not thinking too hard about it myself. The dream was just interesting with both oil and immigration in it.
_________________________

While I'm talking about current events, I have a stronger opinion about something else I heard on the news this morning. The ACLU is taking on another Ten Commandments case in nearby Stigler. The thing that really caught my attention was that the ACLU is saying that such a monument supports Christianity and no other faith. Am I missing something here? When did the Jews cut the Ten Commandments out of the Pentateuch? And the Mormons aren't really Christians either, but I'm guessing that the Ten Commandments are still in their version of the Bible as well. Also, while the Ten Commandments are not directly in the Quran, they do correspond pretty closely to the teachings of Islam. All other arguments about the Ten Commandments aside, this idea the ACLU is putting forth is simply ignorant propaganda.