Today is my Dad's birthday

Hello ScoFans!

Today my dad turns 50. Quite an accomplishment.. you know, with the whole "not dying yet" and everything. Good on him.

Yesterday at quarter to five I received a text that looked an awful lot like this from my mother:

"On our way back from funeral, will call in and have take away with you, about 30 mins away"

My thought sequence went something like this over the next 10 seconds..

Awesome! I don't have to cook tonight.
I forgot the funeral was today. I wonder if my grandparents went?
Shit! Dad's birthday presents are scattered about my table. I have to hurry home and do something about that!

Normally I'm all up for having a chat with coworkers after work. But yesterday I quickly excused myself and tended to my immediate problem.

Because I live an hour away from them I thought it would be safe to leave this stuff laying about until I was ready to get off my ass and wrap it. In my defence, it had only been there for about 3 days.

I was lucky I was too tired to walk back to work after lunch yesterday afternoon so I drove in. It allowed for a much speedier getaway.. after I was able to get away from one particular coworker who heard my story and decided this would be a good time to have a chat about what I had got him, what we were doing for his birthday and so on.

I did manage to get home and get the presents in the bottom of the cupboard before their arrival. And I only just noticed as I was opening the door that I had left the receipt on the table, so it took so slight of hand as I was walking back to the chair to get that into my pocket.

And then I got a scolding from my mother for not taking the time to reply to her text message. She's so proud of herself for being able to text, and when she does she tends to get ignored.

Sorry mum! Had other things on my mind. I'm sure I'll tell you all about it today.

What am I apologizing to you here for? You don't read this.

Because I want to look like a lovely person in front of my blogging peeps. That's why.

Anyway, he also went in for his "pre 50th birthday check up" that our generous Government pays for to keep our older Australias fit, healthy and working. They don't want us all living on the pension.

One of the recommendations on the list was..

- continue not smoking

That's great. That makes sense. But there's a whole lot of other things he's not doing which are beneficial to his health that you could put on that list.

- continue not jamming forks into electric sockets
- continue not hitting on bikers girlfriends
- on that subject, continue not picking fights with people bigger than you
- continue not drinking your own urine. I hear once is okay, but any more than that and you're in trouble. I'm really not sure about other peoples urine. I'll look that up.
- continue not burying yourself naked in the snow.
- continue not falling great distances
- continue not slamming your head into break walls
- continue not driving 180 km/h on the wrong side of the freeway
- continue not jamming sharp objects into your eyes, liver, lungs or heart
- continue not jumping head first through glass

You can see how the list works. Do any of you have other ideas for things that could go there?

Anyway, I think for my personal health and wellbeing, I'll continue making sure dad doesn't see I've tracked down this song on his birthday...

AJs First Birthday Party (AKA My 25th Birthday)

Today, I spent the day at my nieces first birthday party and it was a nice day. Couldn't think of a better way to spend my 25th than with my niece who I hardly ever see.

I was quite proud of the card I picked out though, it had a picture of a pig on the front saying "Happy birthday" then inside it said "Time to HOG all of the attention". And she did, my birthday was overlooked and the focus was on her, and I couldn't be happier. I've never been one for being the centre of attention anyway, and the fact people wanted to acknowledge by birthday every year drove me mad.

Present time was of course the highlight. It was funny watching her open her present to see a new toy and be excited, only to have that toy whisked from under her nose and replaced with another present. It was also a bit sad. But at the end of it all, she was happy. And being a one year old she was much happier playing with the paper than with any of her new toys. And not even all of the paper, she got a piece of paper about 3 inches long out of the metres that were rolled out, and clung to that for dear life for about half an hour. She would be happy to play with a balloon or something with the other hand, so long as she could have her piece of paper.

Her favourite of her new toys was a ride on thing that plays music that my parents got her. The kids put her on it and started pushing her around, and as they were leaving the living room she stopped, gave me her precious piece of paper (I was of course, the only one who could be trusted with something so sacred) and away they went. My repeated efforts to give her back her piece of paper during the rest of the afternoon failed. Apparently it wasn't given to me because I could be trusted with it, it was given to me because it was now rubbish, and I looked like I might be in to that kind of thing.

I won't go into the downs of the day, I will remain upbeat about it and only remember the positives. And as a side note, my parents got me series one and two of Dexter for my birthday. I love that show.

I may find comfort here
I may find peace within the emptiness
How pitiful?
Tool- Reflection

24.98

I was going to write a blog about my weekend, but after having a read through another blog I found this week ("Life, through my eyes") I realised, that like the author of that blog, I too will shortly be a year older.

Sound like an achievement? Well, it's not really, is it? All I've managed to do is not die for 25 years, and the first 25 years of your life are the easiest 25 to survive one would assume.

Twenty five feels like an eternity away. I still see myself as early twenties but now there's no denying, I'm mid twenties and heading rapidly towards late twenties. And then... dare I say.. thirties. But in one short week, 25 becomes a reality.

So I take this opportunity now, to look back at my life and see at various stages throughout where I thought I would be come this milestone.

At age five, I'm not sure where I thought I'd be. I imagine it changed from week to week, from one impossible dream to the next. One week a movie star, the next an astronaut, the next a caterpillar. Needless to say, I have accomplished none of those things.

Age ten, I think I would have dreamed of being a professional sports person of some sort. I played junior sport all year around, and I thought if I stuck with it one day I would make it. I would have thought twenty five is incredibly old, and by that age one should be married and have a few children. Again, I have accomplished none of these things (and, none of them are anywhere on the horizon.)

Fifteen now and starting to learn the harsh realities of life. I was dropping out of sports teams left and right as I realised I was not athletically gifted, and I would be relying on my brain from here on out. I would have seen myself working in an office at a big city firm, not really being sure what people in those offices do, but again thinking by 25 I would probably be married and have children.

At twenty I would have thought by 25 I would almost be finished my CPA, again probably working in a big city building, however by this age I realised marriage and kids, probably not for me.

And here I sit, a week short of 25. Living alone. Single. Almost finished my CPA but working in a small country firm. Achieving very little of what I thought I could accomplish during my early years, because as I'm sure we're all aware, life has a way of crushing our dreams.

But as I sit here now, I ask myself if I'm happy with where I am. And do you know what? I really am. I wouldn't trade my job now for any of that big city money. I don't think I could deal with coming home every night to a wife and children (or even a flatmate and a cat for that matter). And I know I couldn't deal with the fame and publicity that comes with being a professional athlete in this country.

So whilst I don't think I will achieve any more of my goals by the time I reach twenty five, I don't really want to either.

"Well, I mean birthdays are merely symbolic of how another year's gone by and how little we've grown. No matter how desperate we are that someday a better self will emerge, with each flicker of the candles on the cake we know it's not to be. That for the rest of our sad, wretched, pathetic lives, this is who we are to the bitter end. Inevitably, irrevocably. Happy birthday? No such thing." - Jerry Seinfeld