like it's going to be your last day

if there was a musical spectrum of a birthday's overall feel, on one end would be the beatles' "birthday", and on the other would be andrew bird's "happy birthday song". my 25th birthday, which happened tuesday, was definitely toward the andrew bird end of the spectrum. in other words, more sad than glad. on my way to lunch i got a speeding ticket, which pretty much summarized how i felt the majority of the day. when i used the fact that it was my birthday as a plea for leniency, the cop not only continued to give me the ticket, he didn't even wish me happy birthday. "thanks for buckling up" he said as he walked away, and i said "happy birthday" under my breath in exactly the tone and timing i would have used to either swear or say something really clever and insulting about his stupid hat or sunglasses or...baldness if i wasn't feeling so defeated and wrongfully accused (which, to be honest, i wasn't).

but in addition to up to date proof of insurance and registration information (MIRACLE!), my glove compartment gave me one extra special birthday surprise. i bought probably the coolest sunglasses i've ever owned in spain back in the day. they were just like kurt cobain's glasses in my favorite nirvana picture ever (of which i have a very large poster, and i have really big plans to hang it...somewhere when i live in a place i have any expectation i'll be in for more than "one more week..."), and i felt about 37% more like a rock star wearing them. which until tuesday i hadn't done for a very long time because they were lost. but they're not any more--they were just behind the registration and that big jiffy lube envelope that they use to prove that no matter how far technology enters into our lives, the guy who changes your oil will still probably not be able to use a computer to remember if you've ever been there before. the fact that some poeple still pretend they don't know about computers and internets is probably really comforting to someone a lot older than me. which, come to think of it, is the first time i've felt young since feeling like 25 is a long way from 18 or 22. so hooray for birthdays after all!