Sunday, April 20, 2008

Birthday festivities

Happy National Pot Smoking day! I bet you're surprised I know when national pot smoking day is, me being a homeschooler and all. Well, I know a lot of things that might surprise you. Like for instance, on this day in 1902, Marie and Pierre Curie successfully isolated the radioactive substance radium from the mineral pinchblende in their laboratory in Paris (just a hop skip and a jump from where I'm living now). And speaking of the French, on April 20th 1792, they declared war on Austria, which really wasn't very neighborly of them. It wasn't very neighborly of the Soviets, for that matter, to enter Berlin on this very day in 1945 either. But on a more cheerful note, and more to the point, I made my grand entrance on this day in the mid-nineteen eighties. Yes sireee, and until this whole Switzerland stunt, Forest Grove has barely been able to get rid of me since!

Mom called in the morning to sing me happy birthday and I opened my b-day box with her on the phone. There WAS mac and cheese (but I already had a pretty good idea that she was sending some). There was also a very cute outfit, some peach iced tea (a bad drinking habit I picked up living in Kershner house at Fox), and some other fun things like chocolate chips and some little shoe decorations from my Grandma and Grandpa.

Valda and Diana and Janet very kindly threw a b-day party for me after church. We enjoyed Pumpkin soup (and Janet made biscuits!) and lots of good salad and desserts. Janet also planned a game to see how well people knew me. It included harmless questions like "What's steph's favorite kind of chocolate?" and more pointed ones like "how much does stephanie's phone number cost?" which was intended to elicit a very specific story about a poor guy who wanted my phone number years ago. I'm afraid my reputation might have suffered a bit from questions like "how many pairs of shoes does steph own?" I knew it would be trouble when people started guessing "10" and "15," and when I said the person who guessed 50 was probably close to right, half the room about fell off their chairs. Coincidentally, Mom and Dad had sent me a great b-day card with a picture of a girl in front of a wall full of shoes, and on the inside it says "no one could fill your shoes...or count them." (I was surprised Dad didn't take the obvious opportunity to say it would be difficult for anyone to fill them because they're so BIG!). But anywhoo. To add to the coincidence, Dom gave me a Mark Knopfler cd with a song on it called "Imelda." So there was a bit of a theme going on today. But really, in my defense...lots of my shoes were given to me as hand me downs, purchased second hand, or on 5 dollar clearance sales, etc., and the official count includes flip-flops. So other than the space considerations...I really don't see the issue. And anyway, I got thinking about it...I got rid of some shoes recently that were worn out or that hurt my feet too much. So I think I'm down to more like 35 again. So there. :) Other quiz questions came directly out of my blog material. Like, for example, "what animal did Stephanie recently ask her mom for?"

In short, it was a lovely party, and I am especially thankful today for all my good friends here in Basel. Y'all are great!! Couldn't have had a better birthday away from home!

6 comments:

  1. Sounds like you had a GREAT birthday Stephanie! Good friends are definitely gems to be cherished.
    Now that you all know how many pairs of shoes she owns, just think of how difficult it was for her to pack to go to Switzerland. There were some unhappy looks as she tried unsuccessfully to push a few more into her suitcase.

    Mom

    ReplyDelete
  2. Happy birthday Imelda, ...er Stephanie!

    ;-P

    ReplyDelete
  3. why, thank you! and did I mention that I was given a pair of shoes on my birthday?? :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Sweetheart;

    That is PITCHblende, not pinchblende, I'm pretty sure.

    Remember that Monsieur Curie subsequently was run over by a wagon, and killed. probably a lesson there somewhere if only one is morbid enough to see it. :-) Discover Radium one day, get run over by a horse-drawn freight wagon the next. Probably just got too far ahead of himself.

    Dad

    ReplyDelete
  5. Pitch, Pinch--whatever. :) Be glad I know anything about it at all!

    ReplyDelete