A Day that was ...

11 April 2005.

The day was Monday, and as the number creeping up to 26 years of age (which also means creeping down to the grave sooner), the following is 26 ways of surviving your birthday, provided if you were born in 1979.

Read, and let our signatural song of "1979" from Smashing Pumpkins fill in the air!

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1) Clear up the Inbox space of your mobile or cellular phone as you may expect flood of SMS-es, from a mere of "Happy Birthday, Nopal" to a long poem.

2) Get a late-nite/early-morning sleep on the eve of your birthday. No matter how you may wish to make people understand that actually you were born at 1 pm, the concept of "i'm-the-first-one-to-greet-you" has become something to be proud of.

Oh well, come to think of it, by midnight of the same day 26 years ago, my mum might be in hospital and waiting for the operation the next day.

3) Turn on all the chatting softwares your computer has, eventhough you have not used them for quite significant amount of time. People may just knock on your username to say something like "oh, dear! this is your last nite of being 25!"

4) And if you are not comfortable with your age, stick to the age you are most at ease being in.
I'm forever 21, enough said.

5) Arian loves surprises, be it as a doer or a recipient. In this case, I salute Dody for dedicating a precious slot in his popularly populated (goodie gawd!) blog to extend a birthday greeting to me.

Aaawwwww! Thank you, Dod!

Utmost thank will be given if only my picture there is, ahem ... well .. urm ... Oh God, you just ruin my chance to be a celebrity!

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6) Be patient in dealing with people who are "not good at remembering birthdays" (Eko dear, you're included!), so chances are you might be prompted with questions you have to swallow painfully like, "It's tonite, right?"

7) Referring to the point above, remember that when you fall, do it gracefully. When you are caught forgetting one's birthday, the last thing that you may say is something like,
"Oh, well, I think I have to cross the road now, talk to you later!" (courtesy of a sleeping-but-not-beauty girl).

8) You've gotta have a soundtrack of your birthday! And the song might be something that you incidentally stumble into. So don't deny if it has to be from Manis Manja Group or Meggy Z. Whew ...
Luckily, I've never encountered such a mishap. This year, mine happens to be I String Along With You from Diana Krall.

9) Of course, play that song over and over again, to make your short sleep into a peaceful sleep, leaving a smile on your face. Regardless the continuous buzz on your cellphone next to you, the birthday sleep should be one sleep you remember most.

10) OK, you are still struggling with your financial condition, you barely make enough saving at the end of the month, so strictly from the beginning you've gotta state that : Ngga Ada Traktiran Yaaa ...
Thou shalt not fall unto temptation and pleas from other people begging for that.

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11) Twinnie!

12) Having someone to celebrate your birthday with is more than what you can ask for, but having someone whose birthday is the same as yours, that's a sinful indulgence which by any means is legal to indulge yourself into.

13) Keep that thought, for no matter how the actual day went by, reeling on to the thought helps easing your hectic day.

14) Which could have been avoided easily by: Never Going to Work on Your Birthday! This applies if you do a) job that you dislike, b) inconducive workplace where no one cares about you, c) combination of both.

15) It's your birthday, you are at work, your work volume is way down, how you should treat yourself? Break all the rules! Login to your YM and MSN way early, and you'd never know how you may end up into!
Usual greetings aside, you may find yourself in a curhat-session with the icon of "Desperate Housewives" and Kartini's Day-born Kathy, but there can be no more fun than indulging in a bitching session over Zhang Ziyi with that Kartini-follower and half pair of the white-pants couple.

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16) Love the fact that people are trying hard to accomodate your needs, regardless how illogical it may be. I mean, when else you can ask bakal calon artis wannabe not to wear black on your birthday dinner?

17) In addition, going to a crowded mall like Jurong Point to spend some leisure time over light meals is hardly logical, and surely this resulted from the messed up of mind over the thought "it's your birthday, pamper yourself!".
So thank you my housemate, my sleeping-but-not-beauty friend and my long lost friend Rika over the companion.

18) You might be facing the reality that today's not exclusively for you and your beloved one. Apparently, some people came up to me and saying that the day also happened to be their friend/relative/uncle/colleague's birthday.
So, Twinnie, I guess our April 11-blog will see its daylight very soon.

19) Be insecure: your parents ask you to gain some weight.

20) Old-fashioned birthday card sent via express delivery has to be higlighted here as it took some painstaking effort to present that. Grab the spotlight, Ray Bona!

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21) The garing-est sms:

Met ultah pal! Buset dah lewat 1/4 abad. Hahaha. Untung dah dapet kado kesuksesan nulis di jakarta post. Koran org kaya. Huhu lgs dapet 'upah' iMac.

(courtesy of a guy best asked to go out at the last minute before he bombarded you with questions like: "ntar mo kemana?" - "sama siapa?" - "naek apa?" - "pake baju apa?" - "pake sepatu ato sendal?" etc., and closed with "gue ngga ikut deh!")


22) The fab-est sms:

Happy birthday dear. Mg2 all ur wishes come true, tambah mature, ktemu pacar yg tepat and tambah ganteng kaleee. Hehehehe

(and I responded immediately: Yang dua terakhir udah 101% keturutan kaleeeee!)


23) The underlook sms of this year:

Dear Cinta, hope u feel very, very, very happy on ur bday ... because u're very, very, very loved! =D *pluk cium kamu bareng Bambang* jd jgn bete2 di ktr a nanti. Lembur pas bday udah jd hak paten gue! Huhu...

(courtesy of my Cinta who gave a lovely spoil of my birthday present, so sweettttt!)


24) The clueless-turned-thoughtful sms of this year:

Jeng jeng, gw udah ngantuk bgt ney, maunya nunggu persis teng-nya tgl 11.. Tp disana udah kan? So, i really wish you a happy birthday! Gw yakin, the existence of your tweenie (spelling! -ed.) would make this bday memorably great. Kamu smoga sukses ya, in love and life. Pasaran bgtkah, bday wishesny? Hehe. But i do sincerely wish you so. Salam bday buat your twinnie jg ya. Met hepi2 di bday keliyan.. Muach!! Ps: slain tiket ke sing/jkt, ada bday wishlist? :-)

(courtesy of the bride-to-be who amazed me with her ability to type such a long msg! ok Fin, grab that iBook and iPod for me please, along with the return ticket of sing-barcelona-ankara-barcelona-sing! huahahah!)


25) Yeah, I know, you must be curious of THE ONE sms. Remember, tacky corny silly utterances prove to spice up your relationship:

i was born to love you / with every single day of my life / i was born to take care of you / with every single beat of my heart ...

(ok deeeehhhh, i'm speechless, hueheheheheh!)

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26)




Thank you.


Lots of love,


Nauval.