Too Bad on Your Birthday

Thank y'all for the birthday wishes. They are much appreciated.

I'm 24 now. But I'm happy to say that I still have the same maturity as I did in High School. People always told me "when you grow up you'll understand", but yet, I still do not understand any of it. Heck, I don't even remember what I was supposed to understand anymore. So maybe I have not reached that maturity level yet, but boy am I waiting. (I stayed up past 12 AM just to see if at midnight I would gain this wisdom, but I did not. I then stayed up another 7 hours just in case my wisdom was still on Eastern Standard Time.)

So how did I spend my birthday you ask?

6 words: Heroes of Might and Magic IV

I used to be addicted to an earlier version of this game and would play it for hours on end during high school with Dave. I haden't kept up with the game since Yeshiva, but my roomate had it so I decided to start playing again (this was Wednesday night). (I'll try and explain my obsession with video games in the future.)

I decided on my birthday I should do what I enjoy and why not. Sure I had more productive things to be doing today, but on one day I can be a glutton and indulge myself in whatever simple pleasures I enjoy - such as video games. I find that I get the most enjoyment out of things I can do for (nearly) free such as computer games, reading, and music. Some of the best days I can think of were days I took the whole day just reading a great book from beginning to end. (I highly recommend this if you have never done it before. The first time I did this I think I read "Death of a Salesman".)

So although this was a mellow birthday and some of you are probably reading this and thinking, "wow, that is so sad...", an 6-7 hour game (short mainly because of Shabbat) of Heroes was really what I wanted to do. (People are also probably thinking that the title of this post was somehow related to that sentiment but really I chose it because when I thought of a title the first thing that popped into my mind was Janis Joplin's song.)

Well now that I am once again addicted to the game, it may be hard to weed myself off. I think I will do it cold turkey like I ended my heroine addiction. Although that didn't go so well, but that is for another time.


"It’s all of our birthdays this summer
One number older, another year younger
I’ll go to your party, you’ll come to mine
We’ve given up cigarettes, we’ve given up wine
We’ve given up caffeine and sworn off desserts
I don’t try to seduce you, we don’t even flirt
We’re too good to be happy, too straight to be sad
So just blow out the candles, Happy Birthday

Stay out of the ocean, stay out of the sun
Stay in perfect shape and be number one
We’ve got brilliant excuses for having no fun
So blow out the candles, Happy Birthday"

Carly Simon