My birthday weekend has come and passed. Bummer. I was actually enjoying it. I realize I didn't write during those days but I thought it would be nice to have a very long entry to tell about the weekend of my birthday. That and I wasn't motorvated to write each time I was actually on the computer during those days.

My birthday eve. The day was going reasonbly well. My mother, my husband and I went to go get some seeds to plant flowers and we got a few flowers just starting out. I think I've found a new hobby. Growing flowers. I've never really tried it except in school and that was only sticking the plant inside of a sink and turning the water on and letting the soil get nice and wet but not so wet you wind up with a minature mud slide. I never enjoyed doing that much. There wasn't much involvment on our parts in getting the flowers to grow. Not to mention we didn't get to pick the flowers we got to plant. The teacher preselected it and all we did was follow her instructions. I doubt I'll turn into one of these people who talks their flowers into growing but I might say a word or two to it. I'll probably feel silly but oh well. I've felt silly before.

To show how pathetic I am, I can't even remember the name of seeds I got. I planted them yesterday in a pot. I may plant a few more today. I know what the flowers will look like, I just don't know the names of them. I also know what they look like right now. They look like very tiny brown dots that are now buried in black soil that looks reminds me of what was inside a worm I dissected in school.

My parents, my husband and me had dinner had some resturant my mother loves but I've seen better. I've lost interest in the place's chicken. I think the fact that the breaded part of the chicken is thin and the chicken looks more like a fish filet than a chicken. Or maybe it's that their barbeque sauce tastes like a vinegar. Oh well, I got a cheeseburger and a salad instead.

Happy birthday to me!! Happy birthday to me!! I offically became 23. I can't believe it and in ways I don't want to. I feel like I'm losing a bit of my youth here. This will probably sound crazy but it's like you hit 16 you drive, you hit 18 you're legally an adult who can vote, you're 21 you can drink alcohol, you hit 22, you're even more so of an adult, you hit 23, then what?? The next big age is 30 and that's not exactly an age people look forward to. It doesn't mean you get to do something, just means you're 30. Your 20's is when you can actually say you're young and believe it, but once you hit 30, it's gone. The confidence that you're still young is no more. It's not that I think of 30 as old, it just seems like you're approaching the finish line to being young and the 20's is the decade when people say you really are young. Now if I have kid like qualities I'd be deemed immature or childish. I'll be turning 24 next year, I'll officially be in my mid 20's, then comes the late 20's, then 30's will be here. How can I be 23 when I still feel like I'm not old enough to even be in my 20's??

My husband told me happy birthday numerous times which I truly love hearing. Especially the way he was saying it, it was so sweet. I like being told happy birthday but I don't like people singing happy birthday to me. That probably makes no sense but to me it's like the spotlight is on you while everyone sings and is glaring at you in the process.

My parents, my husband and I went to play minature golf and my father after one game decided he wanted to go to the driving range and hit golf balls. Now honestly I didn't really see the point to this. You don't get anything for hitting the ball, you can't keep score except to see how far you hit it, and the objective never changes. We all decided to hit a few. I did better than I did when I was a kid but I wouldn't be calling Tiger Woods yet. I got the ball in the air which was my main goal when hitting the ball. I felt like I was out of place. I had to hit the ball from the opposite side I usually hit when I'm playing minature golf. This took some getting used to. I felt a bit like an idiot. Actually I spent a majority of the time worrying about getting hit with a golf ball other people were hitting and worrying they'd have bad aim. My husband did very well and he enjoyed it more than the minature golf. I didn't figure he'd be the type to get into going to a driving range but he is. My father did well also. He's never shown a whole lot of interest in golf either. Well except for the time when he traded over 30,000 thousand baseball cards worth enough to buy a new house and have enough to live off of for awhile, for a set of golf clubs he used once maybe twice. Speaking of which, where are those golf clubs?? My mother hit a couple, she didn't get into it much.

We went to a resturant that's one of my favorites for my birthday dinner. This resturant is very well known for singing to people who have birthdays and I said before we all went on not to tell them it was my birthday. Everyone agreed although they all know I hate it which usually inspires them to try to do it even more. My husband started telling my mother told them it was my birthday but I didn't exactly believe it. So I thought I'd have a little fun and pay back my husband for all the times he's gotten me. I told our waitress that it was my husband's birthday. I pointed him out and she smiled and said "Okay, don't worry, we'll get him good." I went back to the table. My husband was laughing and saying I screwed myself since my mother didn't tell them anything and I just announced my own birthday. I played along a bit but I wasn't too worried. My husband then started suspecting what I did. It's amazing how well we know each other. The staff of the resturant came over but had 2 things of dessert for the people celebrating a birthday. One of the waitresses gave a young boy one of them and said that there were 2 birthdays so everyone was going to stand in the middle of the room and sing to both people. Then the waitress came over to our table and placed the dessert(which was ice cream, hot fudge, a brownie and whipped cream all combined) in front of my husband. My husband and my parents wasted no time in pointing to me, announcing what I had done. It was funny, the waitress couldn't believe I had done it. They then sang, a bit more embarressing than usual, either because there were 2 of us or to get even with me. The waitress looked at me as she was going and said "That was a slick one." She didn't get upset, she thought it was kind of funny. Granted it wasn't a very honest thing to do and I got screwed anyways, it was funny as hell.

After dinner we tried to rent a movie but nothing of interest was really there. We picked up my birthday cake. My husband had decided on the design and kept it a secret for days. He didn't even tell my parents. It was outlined in green, it said "Happy Birthday (my name)" and it had a picture of a computer on it (one of those that's an actual picture but made out of edible paper). I thought it was funny that he picked a computer to put on it. It makes sense though. My husband and I met thru the computer, I work on the computer and I spend a lot of time on the computer.

My father went to drive his bus that night and surprised the hell out of me by calling at 8:46pm, one minute before I was born 23 years ago. He said he was calling to say happy birthday to me on the exact time I was born. That really surprised me, I thought it was so sweet and not something I expected my father to do. My birthdays have never been a big deal to him. Why was this one so important to him?? Whatever the reasons I'm glad he did it.

This day wasn't as good as the other two. We went to shoot pool and a friend of mine's sister was there. I like both the friend and the sister, although the friend lives near my friend whose husband is in the military and I haven't seen her in ages. I found out the friend is 7 months pregnant. Not exactly something I wanted to hear but oh well. I tried to act happy all the while thinking "That sucks, not fair!!" I found out she was having a boy and this will sound bad I'm sure, part of me was thinking "Good, at least she's not having a girl, then I'd be even more upset." I know that's awful of me but I can't help it. I can't stand hearing about other people being pregnant, especially people I know and what's even worse is hearing about people who I know being pregnant and who are even younger than I am!! This girl is one year younger than me and granted I should be happy for her and in ways I am, but it still bothers me.

Everyone got a bit irritable last night. Well except for my husband, he was basically a witness to everyone else being irritable. I didn't do so great at shooting pool, and I got a bit pissed off at my husband for reaching for his lighter in my pocket while I was trying to play pinball, and him reaching into my pocket when I wasn't expecting it caused me to lose the ball. Yeah I know I was overreacting but I was already slightly irritable. Not sure why.

Later on though I had a good reason for being irritable. We stopped at the grocery store. My parents were in the car with us and they wanted to get some sodas. My father couldn't find regular Pepsi so I was asked to go in and help him find it. I find it in a matter of seconds. It was right next to the caffiene free Pepsi that he had picked up before. Then to make matters worse, he's in line, the price rings up wrong. Where the sodas were, it said 2 for $4.00 It rang up $2.50. The cashier tried to tell me that you have to get two of them to get that price. I knew that wasn't true, even one of the baggers told her that wasn't true. But did she listen?? Nope!! I tell my father about it and he decides to avoid getting in a confrontation with the cashier he wants to make ME look stupid. He tells me I am wrong in front of her. I tell him I'm not, and he says he's going to pay the full price anyways. He says I'm just looking at it wrong. I get pissed off, I take the sodas he asked me to carry and stormed out of there. Granted it wasn't my 50 cents, and it was in fact only 50 cents but it's the principle of the thing. I was frustrated, about to cause a scene, and the fact that my own father was agreeing with the cashier to avoid a confrontation with her so he made me look like the designated idiot pissed me off even more. My mother would have fought it though. Like me, she'll fight the principle of the issue instead of the actual money.

I walk fast towards the car, making no secret of the fact I am pissed off. I tell my mother what happened. My father comes in saying that my mother needs to teach "her daughter" how to add. Finally he admits I was right but that it wasn't worth arguing about. Fine whatever..I guess I shouldn't care about the fact that my father chose to make me look like a stupid idiot, lose 50 cents all for the fact that he didn't want to be a pain to the cashier. What the hell ever is what I say to that.

My mother saw fit to get angry with me because I couldn't drop what he had done. It angered me that he just let it go and then decided to tell me how wrong I was in front of that cashier and how right she was!! It was angering me more how my mother was acting like I was overreacting!! Let's see how she would have felt if my father did that to her!! I was in a bad mood for a little while after that. It didn't help that my mother decided to play back seat driver.

My husband actually asks me sometimes if we're driving my parents somewhere if I want to drive. I love driving but I do NOT want to have to put up with my mother being a back seat driver from hell. She nitpicks about everything!! She fusses on my husband for doing things she does herself. Like if he goes one mile over the speed limit, a car pulls out in front of him or stops then it has to be my husband's fault. She says he follows too close. She says if a car stops suddenly in front of us and my husband has to hit the brakes, then it MUST be because my husband was following too close. Now why would I choose to go thru that?? I hate that my husband has to go thru it but I feel safer when my husband drives. My mother will talk on a cellphone while driving and my father insists on going sight seeing when he drives. Not to mention I trust my husband more.

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Now it's April 29, 2002..my birthday weekend has passed, and it'll be another 51 and a half weeks before my birthday will be here again.