Thursday, December 14, 2006

Somebody’s birthday?

Yep, today is. December 14, 1975.

No, it’s not mine. Nor is it that of any of my blogroll friends.

It’s my baby’s! My younger daughter was born 31 years ago today!

Carol and I thought her older sister was going to be the smarter of the two, because Carol taught Christina to read when she was just three. She always loved to be read to, and later to read. She still does.

But the younger daughter possessed logic skills that still surprise us. She was the one who could figure out problems. She became very good at relating seemingly random facts into a reasoned hypothesis. We called her “little miss logic brain.”

To this day she seems to know instinctively what to do or say in most situations. She can read people and usually impress them (positively) on a first meeting. She has also been referred to as “the queen of B.S.” (but she claims she inherited that trait from her father. Cheeky girl!)

Exactly ten years ago today she graduated Magna Cum Laude from college with a BA in Graphic Design. That evening Carol and I took her and her sister and some of her friends out for a celebratory dinner. She celebrated the completion of her formal education. Carol and I celebrated our freedom from paying the college about $1,000 a month! I likened the occurrence to getting a $12,000 instant raise in annual disposable income.

She and her sister each celebrate their birthdays about 10 days from Christmas, one on each side (before and after). Thus they always felt somewhat cheated out of extra presents since the two holidays tended to merge together for them.

This year we bought Amy a cheesy card and called to wish her a happy day.

But I can’t help pondering the significance of one fact: both of my children have now passed the point where they are only half my age or less. And they never will be again.

Another milestone.

Happy birthday, Amy!

7 comments:

Christina said...

Excuse me? What the hell do you mean, "Carol and I thought her older sister was going to be the smarter of the two..."? That implies that in spite of your first impression, now you think SHE is smarter than ME!
I don't believe this - how could anyone not realize that we are EQUAL in our genius, (or I might be just the teeniest bit smarter...)

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! Just kidding. (please don't share my grade point average at graduation. let's just say I wasn't Magna Cum Laude).

Happy Birthday Little Sister!

Duke_of_Earle said...

My darling Christina,

That does NOT imply ANYTHING. The fact is that you two are both brilliant. We just learned that YOU were brilliant first. So brilliant, in fact, that we despaired of Amy coming close. However, she not only came close, she MAY have equalled you in the IQ department. After all, your SAT scores (total) were equal, remember? Hers was higher in math, and yours in English, but the totals were the same. And, as you and I know quite well, college GPA has absolutely NOTHING to do with intelligence, right?

(I won't share YOUR GPA if you won't share MINE!)

Dad

kenju said...

I love reading your comments! My best friend's birthday is today. She is older than your girl and way younger than I, and she is a great woman. If your daughter shares her birthday - she has to be great too!

Emmy Ellis said...

Happy birthday, Amy!

Christina and me worked out why we share the same toilet humour/love of horror/weirdness/whatever. Our birthdays are days apart.

CAPRICORNS ARE US! Zany mares that we are.

:o)

Anonymous said...

The best to the entire family.

Peter said...

Happy Birthday Amy.

John, may I borrow that exercise in diplomacy, or was it just self preservation, that you put in the comments.

Duke_of_Earle said...

Peter,

"Exercise in diplomacy?" "Self Preservation?"

Whatever are you talking about??

(You may borrow whatever you like. I did seem to work, didn't it?)

John