The No-buy birthday

Dudes and dudettes--

I have officially attained quarter century status, as of 10AM MST on July 16, 2007. It's actually a pretty momentous occasion. Usually, when people ask the mock-serious question on your birthday: "so, do you feel any different, any older?" I respond with a smirky, snarky comment. But this year, I really _do_ feel different. I am 25% through a typical 100-year old life. I break that down into 0-25 childhood/major education, 25-50 career and family rearing, 50-75 begin retirement/self-enrichment, 75-100 waiting for the bell to toll for thee. In that frame, I have completed the phase in which I could plausibly be called a child. There's no turning back now, I am officially, and unequivocally an adult. The next step is just the baby in the baby carriage (and maybe marriage before that, if you want to be proper about things). To complement this momentous birthday, my family did a stupendous job of adhering as closely as possible to not buying things as gifts/buying very meaningful things. My sister Katie redeemed a free Victoria Secret underwear certificate and graciously sent me the receipt for verification. And the undies even have little pencils on them. Ironic because I was a teacher and am about to become a student again. My father continued to outfit my nascent kitchen supplies with a top-of-the line Japanese dicing knife. He says that it is the best knife in the world, and my father should know, because he cuts a lot of things up, including his own fingers. My mother thrifted a stunning near-floor length black down jacket (sleeping bag) from the [in]famous bins of SE Portland's Goodwill outlet. She says the jacket will make me look like Jackie Kennedy. Owen says I look more like Cruella Deville. Nontheless, I will be warm and bundled in Chicago. Owen made/is making a recipe binder of all the loose recipes I have collected over the past three years. It's amazing how much I like lentils. This is reflected in the fact that there is a "lentil" section to the book. In all of this using things up mentality, no one takes the cake like my grandmother though. Not only did she make me napkins out of the same material as hers and my father (what a lineage!) but gave me a book of daily meditations from the Dalai Lama called "Reaching Tranquility." I call it my "daily lama." To all my birthday peeps, big ups. You did a perfect job.