August: The miserable month
August has always been a sucky month for a birthday. Summer vacation ends and school begins in August. It's the only month of the year without a decent holiday. The hottest days of summer are often in August. But in the last few years, August has really started sucking. It started when Princess Diana died on my birthday, August 31, in 1997. I was obsessed with Di when I was kid. I used to clip pictures of her out of People magazine and paste them in a notebook I kept. I wrote my eighth grade term paper about her. So it was depressing for years afterwards to see the news stories memorializing her death on my birthday. Then Sept. 11 happened. And although that didn't happen in August, the lead up to the anniversary of the event starts very early in August. And it's such an emotionally wrenching time of the year. The hurt and anger and sadness of that event hasn't really abated for me. Even five years later. And then last year: Katrina. The hurricane made landfall Aug. 29, and it was nonstop misery and anguish for weeks afterwards. Try celebrating your birthday with a day at the spa (my gift from SkooterPie) knowing that there are people trapped in attics, dying, surrounded by putrid water. I was supposed to feel pampered, but I just felt weepy. And, yay, we get to relive it all again this year with the glossy packaged news stories marking the anniversary. So next week I just really want to take it easy. I don't want a celebration of any kind. I just want to get past this time of year.
posted by Jesse's Mom @ 9:50 AM
6 Comments:
oh ta, how sad. you should still celebrate your birthday. maybe if you're lucky, you will get a big box of toothpaste from me. it is the gift that keeps on giving you know.
And don't forget the birthday cake you never got because another girl named tara,who new it wasn't her birthday,took it anyway.
Oh, yeah, that was one of the worst birthdays ever! First time away from home on my birthday, new college student, and then my Resident Adviser, whose birthday was a week earlier, steals MY birthday cake. When Trechia and I picked up the replacement from food services, we sat in the dorm room and ate the whole thing. While crying. We were so homesick. Ah, memories.
feeling sorry for yourself just a little bit? trying being pregnant in Aug.
oh yeah, remind me to tell you about my birtday month.
Love you
Mom
Man, no more spa days. Hmmm......Keep this secret, I'm going to surprise her by burying her in the backyard under construction debris. Her own lil' disaster! Don't worry, Sadie is a trained professional and will help Jesse and my self dig her out. I hate it when my little cute wife feels left out. jesse is still dressing in camoflauge after we staged our own "Irag invasion" so Tara Leigh would feel included. There is no pleasin' some people.
Well, Ta, you are having a hard time with your birthday! Try having your birthday on Christmas Day! I know I share it with a very special person, but when folks forget Christmas Day is ALSO your Birthday, you usually get a statement like, "Oh yeah, that is your birthday present too! Next time I am in Memphis we will leave the guys at home and go out and discuss the issue!!
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