Half Birthday!

Today is my half birthday…which means I am 35 ½ years old. Some find it odd that I celebrate this day. I had to be15 1/2 to get my driving permit, that was a big day.(Scary that means I have been driving for 20 years technically on Oct. 5th 1988 because I didn't ge my permit until then.) My friends are celebrating their children being 6 months old! So what is the difference I was six months old 35 years ago. I believe it all began because I was born on my Sister Leslie’s birthday. One year growing up I decided I didn’t want to celebrate my birthday with her anymore, I wanted my own day. So I claimed my birthday was September 9th. It has been something we acknowledge every year now, we just celebrate together. Looking back I wouldn’t trade celebrating my birthday with my sister. It is normal to me as I have always shared my birthday with her. My poor Mom and Dad, when they gave us a choice of where we wanted to go for our special Birthday dinner we could never agree. Leslie would choose Peking Garden, if you all know me well enough you know Chinese food is probably at the bottom of the food chain for me. So my parents would take us out twice, maybe that is why I don’t like Chinese food I knew if we didn’t agree we would get to eat out twice. I will never forget my 16th Birthday Party(Leslie’s 18th). Nothing like you see on MTV today. My Mom let us invite all of our friends over for dinner before a Memorial basketball game. If my memory serves me right it was playoffs and the game came into play after we had invited everyone over for the party. So the plans changed a little bit we would eat at my house and everyone would go to the game. My Mom probably had 20 girls over combined with both of us. She slaved for days getting ready to have a nice dinner party for us, when all she really needed to do was order pizza to make everyone happy. She served her now infamous “Hamloaf”, by no means was this anywhere near the top of mine or Leslie’s favorite dinners she would make growing up. But apparently she thought it would be good for a crowd. Leslie and I had eaten it before and didn’t really think anything of it. But the girls they had never seen anything like it. I look back at it now and know my mom was trying to make the night special and it all got out of whack because of the basketball game. If I was just in Tulsa today I know my Mom would make anything for my half birthday. I think I would choose Chicken Kiev she is the best at that with some Benny’s Chocolate cake. Yum. Thinking about that makes me homesick! So to those of you who don’t celebrate your half birthday I will never understand, as it is normal in my life, just as it is sharing my birthday with my sister and now brother in law(that story will come later) and that is always how it will be always be.