Birthdays

Let's have a Black Celebration
Black Celebration
Tonight

To celebrate the fact
That we've seen the back
Of another black
Day

Depeche Mode -- Black Celebration

As many of you already know, I hate my birthdays, mostly because experience has taught me that the world will conspire to have one truly heinous thing happen to me every year on that day. Well, not necessarily heinous, but at least dislikeable.

As an example, I offer last year's birthday. It was on that date that I learned that the person I thought was going to pick me up as my research advisor wasn't going to, and the day I dropped a class to try to live a sane life. In retrospect, both things are amoung the best that have ever happened to me, but at the time, it was a source of stress and agravation that made me consider dropping out of grad school. I allowed myslef a week to wallow in that stress before I started talking to professors again, and I finally wound up talking with John, who has since become not only my advisor, but a close friend as well.

This year was much better than that. While it wasn't necessarily any better than a normal day, it wasn't any worse, either. Maybe the birthday curse has been lifted, and I can shoot for actually having a good birthday next year. Who knows?