Yes, I am saying it's my birthday. Now shut up.

So today's my birthday.
It kinda sucks having your birthday two days before a major holiday, especially one in the dead of winter. It meant everyone was always super-busy getting ready for Christmas on my birthday and didn't have much time to spare. It also meant getting ornaments as gifts, which, believe me, is one of the suckiest gifts you can give a kid. Worse than socks.
I had one birthday party when I was little- and unfortunately it happened to be the year I turned 7.
A week earlier, I had been playing outside in the bitter cold with a friend when she threw my hat up in one of our trees. I climbed the tree to retrieve it and a branch broke under my foot. No bones broken, nothing seemed wrong but my leg hurt- right in the middle of my thigh. Eventually my friend went home and I went inside to warm up. I didn't know anything was wrong until I went to change out of my pants and saw a gaping hole in my leg. It never bled- didn't even tear a hole in my pants (those were some tough corduroys).
We made a flying trip to the emergency room and I got sewed up. I even got to open an early birthday present. It was a pretty bad tear- in addition to numerous invisible stitches, I had seven regular stitches that were removed a week later, leaving me with a decent -sized scar on my leg that I still have to this day.

But while I was stitched up (and being forced to take it easy so I didn't tear said stitches out) I had my birthday and my one party. I had three friends over: Danielle, Lois Jane, and Tarra, who happened to be the friend who threw my hat up in the tree in the first place, thanks a lot. I got to sit at the table and watch them play with the toys I had just opened. Stellar.
In the years since, it hasn't been that bad (except for one notoriously bad birthday two years ago that I'll write about sometime later). Celebrating usually means going out to dinner somewhere nice. And I've learned to make my birthday fun for me. Which means I get a whole day of doing whatever I want. Which doesn't explain why I spent the morning dusting my kitchen.