October

Welp, it’s here. My birthday month. I’m aware that everyone thinks their own birthday month is the best, and that’s cute. But they’re wrong. Except for people born in October. They know what’s up.

The thing I don’t like about October though, is that other things occur during the month that have nothing to do with my birth. This makes it hard to appreciate “The Perfect Month” as I’ve deemed it. One of the reason I refer to it as “the perfect month” is because it’s not too long after summer and not too far away from Christmas. It’s right in the middle of loveliness.

How I feel once it’s October.

One occasion that I’ve had to share with my birthday month is Halloween. This holiday has haunted me (get it?!) since I was born. The idea of me having to share my birth month with a holiday where I’m required to dress in costume is just way too much for me to handle. I mean, it could be worse. I could have a December birthday. All you December babies got gypped! Halloween is fun and everything, but there’s always so much hype and so little pay-off. Also, my birthday month is associated with the color orange which is just cruel and unfair.

Another recent thing that has taken over the entirety of my birthday month is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Honestly, why can’t everyone just be aware of my birthday? Lily’s Birthday Awareness Month. I’m all for people being aware of breast cancer, but can’t we just figure out that it’s around instead of dedicating a whole month to it and ruining the color pink for everyone? I’m not trying to offend anyone with breast cancer or anyone that knows someone who died of breast cancer (because I know that’s what everyone thinks and everyone likes to get mad at me, yeah yeah yeah) I just don’t understand why we need a month for it. Same with Black History Month. Can’t we as a society acknowledge that black men and women are a strong part of our history as a nation? Are we supposed to forget about their history after February? Are we supposed to ignore breast cancer after October? Why do we have awareness months at all? Can’t we all just be freely aware? DON’T FORCE ME TO BE AWARE, WORLD.

After moving to Canada I’ve also had to share fake Thanksgiving with my birthday month. Canadian Thanksgiving is in early October which is dangerously close to the date of my birth. In fact, this year it’s a mere 3 days after my big day. Way too close for comfort. How about Canada just realizes that the only thing they need to be thankful for is me living in their country and dedicate this holiday to moi? Just throwing ideas around.

This October, instead of worrying about other traditions and holidays, I ask you to think about my birthday and how great I am. It’s been a quarter of a century since I’ve been on this earth and I think I deserve some respect.

Childhood Lost

A couple days ago I asked Paul if he was going to see Disney Pixar’s Brave with me. He replied, “Ughh no. That’s for kids.” Yes. Kids and 24 year old girls named Lily. Childhood goes by so quickly and all the fun stuff you do when you’re young is frowned upon when you’re older. Why is that? Why can’t childhood last forever? Why do we have to grow up and clean things and pay taxes and pretend to care about politics and the earth and other people? Childhood was such a selfish time. Maybe that’s why I miss it.

I remember my first taste of people making me feel bad for unleashing my inner child was during my first year of college in Utah. It was October and my friends and I wanted to go trick or treating. So we did. We got a lot of weird looks from parents and children that we passed on the street. I distinctly remembering a woman asking us, “Aren’t you a little old to be trick or treating?” We said uhhh no? She then said, “Are you going to go sit on Santa’s lap too?” You know what lady? WHAT IF I AM? Just because you’re an old skank, doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy the holidays!

I take the kids I babysit to McDonald’s more than the average person should eat there. It’s turning into Supersize Me. Which I’m totes okay with. Every so often I have to help one of them get into the Play Place. It’s usually the youngest who can’t reach the top step or something like that. I’ll look around the room, trying to suppress my desire to climb to the top and go down the slide over and over. I would no doubt be king of the castle and everyone else would be my dirty rascals. I’ve given into temptation a couple of times. Some of the parents smile and some look the other way. Yeah, they better look the other way or else they’re gonna get a milkshake straight to the face.

I also experience the same hate/jealousy around vacation time. My family has been going to Disney World since I was a wee lass. I remember in high school and college people would ask me where I was going for Spring Break. I wouldn’t say Miami or Cabo or LA. I would tell them I was going to Disney World. I could tell they thought I was lame, but you know what? There are probably more adults visiting Disney World than kids. And maybe I enjoy getting an autograph from my favorite Disney characters every so often. And seeing fireworks every night. And walking down Main Street USA. Whatevs.

Paul and I had Netflix for a bit. It was okay but the selection of movies wasn’t superb. One day while Paul was at work, I was checking out Netflix and I saw that they had episodes of Rugrats available! Without batting an eye I ordered one episode and re-lived a bit of my childhood. When Paul came home from work he said, “I know what you’ve been doing.” I looked at him like he was a psycho. Then he said “How was Rugrats?” How did he know?!?! I guess Netflix had sent him an email that said, “Hope you enjoyed your viewing of Rugrats!” We canceled our Netflix subscription after that.

People are always going to judge you when you do things to make yourself happy. Don’t listen to them! Like philosopher/songstress Natasha Bedingfield said, Release your inhibitions! If you want to reminisce and feel like a kid again, you should. I got fro-yo two nights ago and covered it in rainbow sprinkles like I was 5 years old because I don’t care what anyone thinks. Be happy, have fun, be yourself.