Born on the Cusp

I felt obligated to mention in a post that today is my birthday. As I sat looking at the blank post screen, the iPod shuffle brought up...The Strokes, "Is This It." Which is pretty funny, actually--if you haven't heard it before, or don't remember it, the whole song is sort of a bleak hipster's lament about how he's going through the motions, with the refrain being, "Is this it?"

Which isn't at all how I actually feel about my birthday, or at least this specific birthday. I'm actually really happy about things. I've had a good week at work and I've got a great weekend planned--Nobu for dinner tonight, a first for me, and then seeing friends tomorrow. Drinks will occur, and I expect a general sense of mirth and merriment as well. And if it gets bad, I can just retreat to my birthday present courtesy of my lovely, charming, and all-around wonderful girlfriend: a new 60gb iPod Video. It's like a tiny god.

But all that said, there is sort of a weird sense of, like, "How am I supposed to feel about this?" Birthdays get sort of off track after the early 20s. When you're a kid it's obviously a big draw, and then in your teens it seems like almost every birthday is significant in some way. 13: I'm a teenager! 14: I can get a learner's permit to drive in South Dakota! 16: I can drive at night, and by myself! (I think there was also something about age of consent at 16 in South Dakota at that time, but...let's just say that wasn't a real big operating issue for me back then.) 18: Cigarettes! Porn! Lottery tickets! 21: Booze! But from there it sort of got less interesting. 25: I can rent a car! That's not exactly the sort of thing you wait up until midnight on the night before your birthday just to experience. And now, 28. I like that it's an even number, but other than that, what's the difference between 28 and 27? Not much. I still can't run for the Senate, and I could have run for the House of Representatives last year.

So I'm adjusting. Instead of birthdays being some big milestone, they're now more of an excuse to get all of your friends together and have them be nice to you. Which is more than enough for me. And besides, there's no reason you can't still take advantage of all of your earlier milestones. That's why I have to stop off at the bodega on the way home, so I can stock up on booze, porn, and lottery tickets. I've got a birthday party to plan.