A happy birthday! 生日很快樂

Spent most of the day with Mom and Dad today. My birthday's really tomorrow, but I have to work, so we got together for lunch at Spice Shop in Tianmu (Mom's pick) and a movie (Dad's pick) after my sketching class in the morning. Thank you Mom and Dad for giving me a wonderful life!

OK, now let's rewind back to last Friday.
I had dinner with two girl friends, let's call them A and B. Here's the conversation as I remember it:
A: didn't do much partying with friends this last time we got together in the States. after dinner, we just went back to the hotel room to talk, you know, catch up.
B: what? really? you didn't go drinking?
A: no. we were tired. man, we would be staying out all night 10 years go.
B: oh yeah, I know what you mean. I don't know where I used to get all that energy.
A: yeeeeeeah.
Me: really? I don't feel any different... I guess I missed that entire part of my life, the party part.
A: yeah, you rowed and were in bed by 9 and up by 4 when you were in college. and your godmother wanted you home by 8 when you were in grad school.
Me: I suppose. But I realized recently, I don't enjoy being in crowded or noisy places anyway.
A: yeah, that's true. hey, so what do you want to do for your birthday next week? we can do obaachan (granny) stuff, like eat or have tea or something.
Me: I......dunno................



Obaachan? Obaachan? OBAACHAN???!!!

I....do young people stuff! Like what? Like artsy stuff, drink tea, eat cake, chat with friends...

OK, maybe I am obaachan.

But I cycle! I jog! I do (more like think about doing) karate. And I write, take photos, do geeky computer stuff that obaachan's don't (they don't, right?). The organ donation association director was very happy yesterday when I signed up to be an organ donor - meaning my tissue is good and young enough to share if the opportunity should arise.

OK. My body still feels 21 (I can almost still feel Coach Carrie kicking my butt to row harder and cycle faster), but my mind maybe is 81 - getting more and more senile and crazy.

This is madness. I refuse to be "old."

But I'm not going clubbing, that's for sure. Gave it an honest try last week with A&B at the grand opening of Marquee, and now I'm certain I am not a party animal.

I still don't know what I want to do for my birthday with friends. I may just end up having tea and biscuits in the end... Any suggestions? No rush, I have an entire year before the next birthday.

So how different do I feel now, 10 years after becoming able to legally buy booze? Hm, I am thinner (no more scary looking muscles), have bigger eyes (those eyelid wrinkles really help) and I'm happier.

Now what could possibly be better than that?

Truly a happy birthday!


明天得上班
所以今天跟爸媽提早過生日
一早先去學畫畫
然後跟爸媽中午吃天母的Spice Shop印度菜
之後一起去看電影
一天就這麼渡過了

不過回到上禮拜五
我和兩位女性朋友吃飯
我記得有這麼一段對話：
A: 這次回去美國沒玩得很瘋狂
吃完飯我們回飯店聊天敘舊
B: 真的喔？你們沒去喝酒喔？
A: 沒有啊，都很累
要是十年前，我們應該在外面玩到天亮吧！
B: 嗯，我能夠理解，十年前真的不知道那體力哪裡來的
A: 對啊～
me: 是喔？我不覺得有什麼不同...
可能完全錯過瘋狂玩耍的那段時期吧
A: 對啊，你大學划船，晚上九點睡覺凌晨四點起床
研究所你乾媽八點就要你回家
me: 嗯，對啊，不過我最近也發現我不喜歡人多和很吵的場所
A: 嗯，啊對，下禮拜生日你想做什麼？
我們可以去做些obaachan(阿媽)事情，喝茶，吃東西之類的
me: 不知道耶。。。。。。。。


Obaachan? Obaachan? OBAACHAN???!!!

我也做年輕人的事情啊！
像是。。。
畫畫，喝茶，吃甜點，跟朋友聊天

好啦，或許我是obaachan啦。。。

不過我騎鐵馬，我慢跑
我寫東西，拍照
弄電腦的東西（阿媽不會弄電腦吧？）
昨天簽下器捐同意書的時候
協會的人還很開心
代表我的器官還年輕，好用吧？

好啦，我的身體感覺還是21歲
但是頭腦好像81歲
忘東望西，越來越“蕃"

這...太over了啦
我拒絕當老人

無論如何
打死我還是不去夜店
(上禮拜有去，很努力的撐，但最後還是很早就逃出來了)
我百分之百確定我不是party animal

不過我還是不知道如何過生日和朋友要
可能還是喝茶吃餅乾吧
大家有建議嗎？
不急，反正離下次生日還有一年時間

所以從能夠買酒到10年後，
現在的我
感覺有什麼不同？

比以前瘦(以前那恐怖的肌肉都消了)
眼睛比以前大(眼皮上面的皺紋很有幫助)
還有。。。比以前快樂

不可能有比這更好的吧？

真的是生日快樂 :)