August 24

In high school my friend Philip used to call me Rain Woman. I don't remember the movie Rain Man all that well, but I know that the main character, who has a mental disability, obsessively remembers numbers. Philip made the connection because I can remember phone numbers of friends I had in elementary school, birthdays of pretty much anyone I was friends with or "dated", and can remember lots of other insignificant dates that I just can't shake from my memory log. He used to really enjoy when I'd say, "Today is the anniversary of the day I broke up with my 8th grade boyfriend". Really? Why do I remember these things? There is one exception to my number brain: I can't remember the difference in the 28th and 29th. I know a lot of people who have birthdays on one of those 2 dates, and every time their birthday comes up I look it up about 5 times to make sure I have it right. I don't know why, but those numbers are my enemies. So, if your birthday is on one of those two days please have patience with me. It doesn't matter how many years I've told myself which day is right, I still have to look it up to be sure. My mind plays evil tricks.

But one date that is not an exception to my Rain Woman identity is August 24. That's Austin's birthday! If you remember back to our dating story, you know that I broke up with him around Valentines day in 8th grade. Shortly after that I changed churches, so I didn't see Austin for probably 4-5 months. But, when August 24 came around I picked up the phone and dialed 281-859-5836 to wish him a happy 16th birthday (yep, that's his old phone number. ohhhh. yeah.) I called him every year after that on his birthday because even though we didn't talk much, and he may never have thought of me between his birthdays as the years passed, I always thought about him on August 24.

I LOVE celebrating his birthday. He isn't one for much gloating or attention or spot light on a normal basis, but he can't argue if I make a big deal out of his birthday. But, when I'm offering chicken fried steak, lasagna, enchiladas, tres leches cake, blue bell ice cream, and fun little gifts for a week how could he argue? He had his chicken fried steak on Sunday (quite possibly the best I've ever made actually), tonight is lasagna, and later this week is enchiladas. He won't get home until probably 8 tonight so I don't think we'll have blue bell, but that will be coming for sure. He got Family Guy Season 8 (definitely a gift of love as it is torture for me to watch), a new CD, and a Mario Williams Texans jersey. I'm not good at keeping gifts once I have them, so he already got all of those things. oops :)

Like I mentioned before, celebrating someone's birthday is like celebrating their life - and there isn't a life that I'm more thankful for than his. So for me, this one is the biggest celebration of all. Happy Birthday/Week/Month Austin - love you :)