My Birthday, Crying Over Spilled Coffee & Rocky Mountain Angst

Friday, February 27th marked my 52rd birthday.

Let’s just say on the Birthday Meter, this one registered about a minus three.

Such is my life…and it started out with such great promise. My birthday present from my BFF arrived containing a nifty shirt, pencils and books from the Newseum as well as another emergency chocolate bar to replace the one I ate earlier this month. (You can read about that crisis here.)

So Friday, I donned my nifty new “Got freedom?” Newseum t-shirt, sharpened my Newseum pencils and stashed them in my pocket and drove on to school. I even zipped through Starbucks to purchase a grande non-fat, three raw sugar latte in celebration of my birthday.

It pretty much went downhill after that. Here’s my list…

Top 5 Reasons My Birthday Sucked

Item #5… Right before first period started, I promptly spilled my grande non-fat, three raw sugar birthday latte all over the floor by my classroom. (On a positive note, my hallway smelled like Starbucks for the rest of the day. On a sad note, the smell was a constant reminder of my missing grande non-fat, three raw sugar birthday latte.)

Item #4…I left my emergency chocolate bar at home (which, of course, I needed after spilling my grande non-fat, three raw sugar birthday latte all over the floor by my classroom).

Item #3…I discovered that my new yoga instructor was actually my yearbook editor a gajillion years ago and that her daughter will soon be attending my high school and will probably sign up for yearbook. That little ditty all translates into one of two things: Numero Uno– I’m really getting old because I’m moving into teaching a second generation, or Numero Two-oh–my former yearbook editor must have started having children when she was like 10 years old. I think I’m going with Numero Two-oh. I don’t care what you say.

Item #2a…I discovered that my yearbook staff forgot about six pages. “Forgot?” you ask. Yes siree, Missy. Forgot as in…Hmmmm… never created…never assigned… Nothing. Nadda. Zilch. Zippo. Well, you get the picture. And, of course, this little fact was exacerbated by Item #4.

Item #2b…I didn’t leave school until after 5 p.m. on my birthday. And the yearbook staff? Why they were nowhere in sight, and neither was Item #4.

And, drum roll pah-leese…
The No. 1 reason my birthday sucked…After 149 years and 311 days, the Rocky Mountain News folded on my birthday. People who know me would understand why this would be a source of angst. Read about my despair by going here.

160 Carnival of Education, My Birthday & Irrelevancy

The street is a sideshow from the peddler to the corner girl
Life is a carnival--it’s in the book
Life is a carnival--take another look"

–from Life is a Carnival
the Band

The 160 Carnival of Education is out. You can go there to see what’s been posted elsewhere in the EduSphere this week.

But wait a minute a darn tootin’ minute!

… I want you to stay right here and post a Happy Birthday message to yours truly and read my bonus post below. Yep, another b-day is here and it’s today! You can post your messages by clicking on “comments” at the end of this post, or you can just email me off site at mybellringers@gmail.com. And, be nice. No spamming me with anti-wrinkle cream ads or AARP propaganda. ;-)

And, if you haven’t read my most recent post, well, geewillikers, it’s right below--Biggest Loser, Saving the Titantic & Me. I don’t say anything when my submissions to the carnival are rejected, but since it’s my birthday, I can say anything I want to. I found it rather humorous and ironic that my Biggest Loser post was rejected by a Yale student because he said, “Things that didn’t make the grade: completely irrelevant and off-topic submissions!”

Now, neighbors, I’ve been called a lot of things (and usually they rhyme with my last name and start towards the beginning of the alphabet or the end of the alphabet–you figure it out)…

But Irrelevant?

And on my 51st birthday?

And with an exclamation point?!?!

My staffers are going to have some kind of fun with this one… I think I feel a blog coming on…

And an irrelevant one at that.