“Happy” Birthday

Sigh

My birthday and time zones just don’t get along. Like not even a little.

Jan and the family tried to help me have a good day. Jan got me a Leonardo action figure, which is really cool cause it actually jumps and does a back flip.
But… I’m in Sydney time right now. While I was enjoying the first day of February, everyone else I know (even my friend in Germany) was still saying goodbye to January while I was having my birthday.

The fact that I wasn’t feeling all that great didn’t help things much at all. Still, the part about most all of you forgetting that I was in a different time zone and so already had my birthday by the time most of you said, “Happy birthday” really didn't help. But that still wasn't the worst part.

Like I said, my birthday has not had good luck with time zones…

One of my Aunts in Honduras (one of my Mother’s cousins, but you know us Latinos) for the past few years would call me in the morning on the first of February to wish me a happy birthday. Before it was just a card, until my last visit back to the motherland, then she started calling. Which, for a 3rd worlder to call a 1st worlder is very kind and thoughtful, so, I did appreciate the niceness of it all, but, I couldn’t display those feelings when I was being woken up just before 6 am. You see, all of Honduras is in 1 time zone, they don’t span across 4 like the 48 states do, and Honduras is 2 hours ahead of California, so that means, even though they were trying to get a hold of me before my cousin Orlin went to school, that was still two hours ahead, while I was still lying motionless in bed.

And so… in 2008 and 2009 I actually spent the night at the Kigers the night before my birthday just so that, even if they call, I could still sleep in. Which... looking back just makes me feel like even more of a dick. All they wanted was to be good family, but it was to inconvenient of a time for me.

2007 was the last birthday that I talked to Orlin. He was murdered last June just after I returned to CA from my last trip out here. As much as it use to annoy me… right now I would give anything to be woken up by my Aunt at any hour day or night if I could just talk to my cousin again.

Then throw in the absence of the turtles and… well…
It wasn’t the greatest way of starting off my 24th lap around the sun.


At least I’ve only got another 363 days left till my car insurance goes down.



21 Feb 2010
Ammendment 1
A. My Aussie family did what they knew best to do to make me feel loved, this isn't a blog about what they did or didn't do because what they did do was kind hearted.
B. I do NOT make it sound like I would have only been happy if my entire family flew down, I was talking about the fact that a couple friends I've yet to even meet in real life, said happy birthday before a couple of my best friends who I've known for nearly 20 years.
C. This blog was not an opportunity for all of YOU to call me a selfish dick, this blog was ME confessing it.
D. This blog is about how much my cousin Orlin was on my mind all day because he and his mother historically called me year after year on my birthday, and I'm a selfish dick who would have rather slept in, than to talk to a family member, and now, I will never again get that chance, because Orlin was murdered and I never replied to the last letter he sent me because I procrastinate, and even though I shouldn't let it, it kinda haunts me to know that I never replied, never let him know that I love him, and am glad to be related to him.