You say it's your birthday? It's my birthday too, yeah!

Bink, Jujubi, and I are planning a joint birthday party for ourselves in August. Their birthdays are the same week as mine, and as we spent our 18th, 19th, 20th, and 21st birthdays together, it seemed appropriate to me that we spend our 40th birthdays together as well. We've been talking about this since April, and have finally sent out the invitation this week. It is beyond peculiar to me that I'm about to be 40, as I have felt 27 for years - thirteen! - now. At least I have a couple of friends who are doing it too.


When we were in college, Phil's birthday was also in that week. He was a year older, but his birthday was the day before mine. Only about a week ago it occurred to me that Phil would be 41 this year, and I realized that I've always thought of him as being 24, as if he were still around he wouldn't have been aging right along with us. And of course he still is 24, because that's how old he was when my most recent interactions with him happened.


Last night The Killer Lady and I met at a taqueria for dinner. For the ten years we've both lived in the Bay Area, we've always had dinner together on July 14 in Phil's memory, and it's become traditional for us to go out for Mexican food. There were several places to choose from, but we chose La Calaca Loca, because the name "The Crazy Skeleton" is a name that Phil would have liked. It's odd how you still know those things about someone years after they've passed out of your life. Plus, the Day of the Dead decorative theme seemed especially right.