IN RETROSPECT, MAYBE I WAS A BIT TOO INDIRECT
As many of you (but apparently not everyone) noticed, yesterday was my birthday. Thanks to those of you who left comments, mentioned something in their own blogs, called me, and... oh yeah, that was a cute e-card you sent. Gracias.

Now, I've never been accused of being hard to read. Whatever substance exists is right on the surface. But early yesterday afternoon, I sent out an e-mail to a handful of my closest friends that seems to have flown right over almost all of their heads. It read:

So I was thinking of going to Posh and doing some celebrating tonight, ‘cause... you know, and since I only have around $25 because my royalty check is apparently being delivered by a crippled tortoise since it’s taken almost a week to make it between East 25th Street and East 81st Street I thought it would be a great idea if other people went out to celebrate, too, especially because in the process they could buy me a few drinks and subsidize my celebration.

*breath*

Any suckers takers?

Yup. Right over their heads. Out of eight people on the distribution list, I think three of them caught what I was celebrating. The others apparently thought I was just looking for free drinks. Which, of course, I was, but still...

As a result, my big birthday night was essentially just an average night at Posh, except I was also suddenly afflicted by hiccups and therefore home at a reasonable hour, where I ran into my roommate who also didn't know it was my birthday.

Honestly, people, do I have to take out newspaper ads? Keep up with me, okay?

But thanks to Greg, Lynette, Kim, Craig, Marc, John, Wesley, Kate, Jimmy, Will, and maybe one or two others I've forgotten for the cocktails. They were appreciated.

The other happy birthday news items were the cute phone messsages from Bradykins, followed by flowers. And finally followed by news that he found work. Always a good thing.

Oh -- one other thing: December 8, 2004 was also the day someone discovered TRL by searching for what I think is my new favorite Google referral ever:

cloris leachman plays golda meier

It doesn't get any better than this...