They say its your birthday

The beautifully paved, forested path in Central Park (a manicured version of the real thing) complete with landscapers and slithering creeps is quizzical. Magical in the the kiss of summer and the whisper of fall, but almost poisonous in its juxtaposition. Alice in Wonderland, Oz, all of it luxury--but unreal, because it is afterall, largely unnatural. Walking foot over foot through the foliage observing every now and then, the curious New Yorkers with their accents and clothes. They are just like the display windows, only touchable in this setting. I'm sightseeing, taking it in, enjoying myself on vacation, but then in an instant everything changed.

A curious black little spec hovered carelessly in the air. A simple fly completing its lifecycle that lasts about a day perhaps. It was nothing and yet I noticed it. Obviously, it was a sick fly because it was flying as though it was intoxicated. Figures, it being a New York fly and all. And then, with the audacity of a sassy teenager, the translucent orange glow was unmistakingly spectacular in its simplicity. Was that? I had to see it again! Running, screaming, laughing down the path like a crazed New Yorker. Hey, do they come in different colors? Like jolly ranchers, like lights at Christmas, like a child's delight over the simplest occurence, icecream? It was worth a million birthdays at least. I ran through them and they flashed on and off. And to think, I thought it was a diseased fly.

Off the island of Maui, suspended from my parachute, being kissed by the ocean and toted through the air alongside the mooga mooga birds with a tummyfull of sweet pineapple. The rain? A simple mist that we try to replicate at home by purchasing a garden hose full of millions of holes and hang from the patio. Sweet in its attempt to recreate the experience, but hopelessly silly. And how can it be? One amazing thing after another? I'd just seen hundreds of spotted dolphins that same day play in the clear, kool-aid blue ocean. A manta ray breeched, leapt into the air like a whirling pancake and I'd seen it off the boat. I'd floated in the ocean, alongside a hundred other souls thinking it was weird because you could really drown, it was so big. Enormous. I didn't even comprehend enormous until then.

And now, today of all days my birthday, December 14th is really the moment of truth isn't it? I woke up with a certain sense of oh my gosh, its just another day, carry-on and whatever you do don't expect too much. Well, the whole birthday surprise thing is suspicious, isn't it? Wonderous things happen to other people who think just the right thoughts and are serious, and mostly perfect. You know the ones I'm talking about. They drive cars that don't ever break down, they don't have any cavities, and their clothes are never ever wrinkled.

Believe it or not, I'm the one, who gets the plain papered box, from ebay that's empty. The shipper says, no I put what you bought in there! So I take a picture of an empty box and email it. See? Technology at work.

I'm the one with the lottery ticket that doesn't even get one damn number on the day the statistics professor is giving a lecture on why the lottery is a waste of money (mathmatically speaking) of course. And I sit there, shaking my head thinking why am I so stupid? Even though it only costs a dollar, I've wasted a dollar, and I'm probably doomed because he's lecturing about it and... my gawd this lottery ticket is burning a hole right through my pocket. It might as well be up on the board flashing before our eyes. And oh yea, I'll end up with C or D on the probability test, because instead of learning probability I'm thinking about this damned lottery ticket. Curse you.

I'm the one who gets a rock - just like Charlie Brown on Halloween. Usually we all just laugh and toss the rocks and go buy a bunch of candybars, because all my friends get rocks too, but not this year. This year was totally different! I opened up the box and it just so happened, that what I thought was an empty box, full of losing lottery tickets, and rocks was really full of something that I just couldn't see.

Dreams my friend, dreams.