We did this last year, too. Oh, well.

What do you do for your birthday? Ignore it? Have a big party? Hide under the covers and hope it goes away? Are you a birthday brat, reminding everyone for months in advance? Or do you forget about it until it sneaks up on you?

And when is your birthday, anyway?

-- Anonymous, July 18, 2001

Answers

Happy happy birthday, Beth-girl! Are you thirty two? You don't look a day over twenty five.

I love birthdays. Today's Anthony's birthday (and our anniversary) and we're going to have a big party at a big bar and drink 32oz beers from mugs the size of our heads. Birthdays should be celebrated, because they are the day you graced the world with your inimitable presence, and who the fuck cares how long ago your debut was? Yeah. Yeah!

-- Anonymous, July 18, 2001

We go out and have a big steak or prime rib dinner. Sometimes it's just the two of us, sometimes a big crowd, depending on whether we can round up anybody.

I certainly remind my husband of it, though he doesn't need reminding - usually I have him buy me my present in December or so. I never lie about my age or feel bad about being "over the hill" etc any more. It sure beats the alternative.

It's January 4, which sucks.

-- Anonymous, July 18, 2001

I'm horrible about birthdays. I'm too shy to speak up about them, and then hurt when no one notices.

I usually mention my birthday about once the month before it happens. This is a bit of a victory for me, because before, I was too shy to say ANYTHING.

Making it even worse, my boyfriend is of the gift giving tradition where you go together to a store and the giver says to the givee, "pick something out". I find that horrifying.

My birthday was July 7. I'm 28. I behave like a bratty 14 year old.

-- Anonymous, July 18, 2001

I love Birthdays. I hate presents and gift giving and all of that, but I just love to have an excuse to gather all of my friends together. This past birthday kinda sucked cuz I was still new in town, but my upcoming one will be great because I'll have a birthday party here, then fly home, have a birthday party in Providence, then go to Florida to ride roller coasters for a week.

-- Anonymous, July 18, 2001

Although it's been said, many times many ways, happy birthday to you Beth!

-- Anonymous, July 18, 2001

Oh yeah, happy happy happy birthday Beth.

-- Anonymous, July 18, 2001

It's never been said in a Nat King Cole song, Ian, so thank you! And everyone else, too.

Jen, tell Anthony he's in the club. It's a very exclusive club, but Hunter S. Thompson is a member, too.

-- Anonymous, July 18, 2001

I love daydreaming about what could happen on my birthday. Will someone throw me a surprise party? Will I get balloons or flowers? Will I get an unexpected gift? So many good things could happen - and usually do. It's a nice feeling. Of course, I've yet to have a surprise party, but I'm always hoping someone would give me one!

-- Anonymous, July 18, 2001

Happy birthdayday Beth!

I usually don't do anything special on my own birthday. This year I hung out with my grandparents because I was in the thrall of panic attacks and my mom was out of town. That was just swell. I was 24 on April 21st.

Other peoples birthdays though, if they're in town (I'm awful about remembering birthdays of people who I don't see often... bad Mar.) are pretty cool. I love buying presents for people and putting a lot of thought into them. I found something great for my friend April's birthday in two weeks, and even though Mike's birthday isn't until September (he'll be 34, augh I'm dating an old man!) I'm already breaking the bank finding him cool stuff. Everyone needs a vintage Corvair keychain, right?

-- Anonymous, July 18, 2001

When I was a kid my birthday was all about fireworks. Well, the set them off in your backyard kind that are legal in the midwest. My dad would buy a ton for July 4 and save some and do a special fireworks show just for me. I'm sure our neighbors were all, "What the HELL? You're two weeks late!" Also, novelty cakes were a thing for my birthday but not really my siblings. One was a real Barbie with a dress - bodice of frosting, big poofy cake skirt with fancy frosting. One was decorated like a basket, with frosting handles and frosting balls of yarns and ceramic kitties playing in/on it. That was the best cake ever.

I tend to mention my birthday to people a couple of months before but then stop around June. I mean, I want the attention, the presents, the fawning, I just don't want to seem as if I want it. Actually, I'm okay without presents I just want attention! Define me, love ME! I am a middle child.

This year I made it point to tell all my studio contacts, everytime Jurassic Park 3 came up, that it was opening on my birthday. None of them remembered though. Stupid Hollywood bastards.

I did mention to _r that Birthday Week seems to be big in the OLJ community and that Beth got a present on Monday. He's off the hook though since Birthday Week isn't really a thing with us. Plus I got flowers today, all purty and yellow and sunshiny and bright, and there's a big box wrapped up in the living room and we're going out to dinner and a movie of my choice tonight.

Happy birthday Beth, reader Denise, lover Anthony, Muffet and Lunesse.

-- Anonymous, July 18, 2001

I certainly hope you are not working. I don't work on my birthday if I can help it. Since I've had a full-time job, I have worked once on my birthday. It turned out fine since I plied myself with treats and got taken out to dinner. Its kind of fun to work with a secret, like "I'm not wearing underwear" type of thing.

I don't like parties on my birthday because I get nervous and have to drink a lot before them 'cause I'm worried everyone is having a bad time. I like to go to an urban place, see some art, do a little shopping for myself, have a nice walk, have a great elaborate dinner, with friends and cake, and some "evening activity".

I'm kind of a passive aggressive birthday brat. I act like its no big deal but I keep talking about it to everyone. And this year, on October 19 I turn 30, so I'm passive-aggressively suggesting that waking up in London the morning I turn 30 might be a nice way to guarantee I don't get very depressed. At any rate, I'm pretty good at celebrating my birthday on my own. I buy myself many many presents in the three weeks preceeding the big day.

-- Anonymous, July 18, 2001

I married a girl who loves to celebrate people's birthdays; a joyous energy which is highly contagious. I'm lucky, because I grew up not placing value on my (or other's) birthday out of sheer disappointment when my family would forget, or in an unusual remembrance purchase me a bathrobe. No kidding. I have a specific memory of my mom trying to drag my father away from the t.v. long enough to sing me happy birthday.

These days, my mom sends me a book (no card), but it's ok because my wife will take me out for seafood, and, in the case of this last June 13th, buy me a mountaineering tent, too.... way cool.

-- Anonymous, July 18, 2001

Beth, Anthony will be delighted to know he's a replicant with long- dormant plans to scour the earth and remake it in the clone creche's image. Hell, I'm delighted. I've always wanted to date a member of an apocalyptic despot club. Especially since the members are so groovy.

(Happy duper birthday also to Mz Slickery and Muffet and Lunesse and Denise.)

-- Anonymous, July 18, 2001

I can't believe I forgot to wish Beth a happy one, even if she is working. I am really glad you got a new computer so that this will all continue.

-- Anonymous, July 18, 2001

Happy birthday Beth! I'd sing you the Happy Birthday song, but it's copywrited so I can't. Perhaps I'll use the same words, but make up my own little tune....

Also, add me to the Passive Aggressive Birthday Brat list. I pretend it doesn't mean anyting, but then I keep waiting for the big surprise party that never happens. Ah well. I usually throw a party, but don't tell people what it's for because I don't want to look like I'm groveling for gifts.

-- Anonymous, July 18, 2001

Thanks, guys. I'm only sort of working -- I'm working at home this morning, but I'm doing things that can be done while I watch old X Files tapes. Jeremy is taking me to lunch and dinner. It's a school night so nothing too exciting, but I've gotten little presents and treats and special dinners all week, with plans to continue through the weekend. Birthday week rocks. Thank you, Pamie.

-- Anonymous, July 18, 2001

Bonne Fete, Beth.

I prefer the low-key approach. As long as a couple of close friends remember and offer to take me to dinner or buy me gifts, I'm happy. One friend threw a surprise party for me several years ago, which was extremely nice, but totally unnecessary, since I loathe being the center of attention.

When I was younger, it was all about the cake (chocolate, of course). The birthday person got the most coveted piece, the one with the most icing.

And I'm an Aquarian, February 6th.

-- Anonymous, July 18, 2001

Happy Birthday, Beth et al.! Today is also my father's birthday, though I doubt he is also an alien clone.

My birthday's 25 May, and I have never had a pony.

-- Anonymous, July 18, 2001

Happy Birthday, Beth! 32? Aren't *you* a big girl?

My husband makes me carrot cake. He also makes me my mom's meatballs and spaghetti, which has long been my favorite meal on the planet. (He actually called her and got her recipe.) I also get to sleep in and/or get some.

Sometimes we go to dinner, but I'd much rather have carrot cake and spaghetti and meatballs at home.

Oh, as the undisputed birthday brat, I'd just like to let everyone know that my birthday is September 11. Send presents.

-- Anonymous, July 18, 2001

I love birthdays. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BETH! I don't really care to get presents, to tell you the truth, though if someone surprises me with something, I'm thriled like a little kid. I am ~still~ totally enamored of having a birthday, even though this last one was for 39, and everyone said I wouldn't want to be celebrating anymore, but I will. Always. I stay up until midnight the night my birthday is about to begin just because I have always done so ever since I can remember. (Actually, I stay up late, reading or watching movies or whatever just seems totally for moi.) I then sleep late, (the one rare glory of owning your own business) and I usually go out to lunch with Carl or, if he's working, with a girlfriend or two and catch a movie or go sit at a restaurant for hours. Then back home, where I generally plow into another book until, yup, midnight, when my birthday is over. (June 11) I plan on doing this for the next 100 years. At least.

Morpheus -- my family was often the same. Mabye it's us Geminis? (nah) Now they are better -- they do call or send a card (they live in town) and my mom has started asking to take me to lunch for the last few years, though we try for the week, not necessarily the day.

My husband, who is BIG on parties and celebrating, and is a pretty creative gift-giver (except for the one year when he gave me a pellet gun when we were first married, so I could open something but then our son could have the actual present... which would have been fine for a joke, but then there were no other prezzies!!! and have I ever let him forget it? nosirreebob)... anyway, he keeps threatening to give me a party, but I'm not a big party person, so I have to beg, every year, just to let me have my day the way I like it. Did I mention that I love birthdays?

-- Anonymous, July 18, 2001

Happy birthday, Beth! I hope you have a great day.

I answered the whole birthday question last year, too. I still have issues with birthdays. And I always will, since I haven't heard of any plans afoot to move the date of Christmas.

I did have a birthday countdown on my journal last year. Because I could.

Do the dogs get you presents?

-- Anonymous, July 18, 2001

Happy Birthday, Beth!

I love it when a fuss is made about my birthday, but I hate having to engineer it, and by fuss I mean having my familiy offering to do some of my chores voluntarily, the kids deciding to not fight, that kind of thing. Pampering is good. Presents are good too (this year I got a new laptop, so I think I'm peaked on presents for the next decade at least!). Big parties aren't something I've ever had, and have no strong desire for. Some years, I will mention it in advance, sometimes not... It's always a pleasant feeling when people remember, but it doesn't bother me overmuch when they don't.

Growing up, it fell right at around my Dad's PCS date (the time of year he'd be transfered to another location), so a lot of the time, we were either busy moving out, moving in, or somewhere on the road at the time.

Now, it falls square in the middle of a bunch of other family birthdays (birthday season is from early May til late July), and I'm always more busy with making sure those are planned for than my own. I decided a few years back that if I was going to be the cake provider, I'd have what I like, so now my birthday cake is always a cheesecake - and my daughter has learned to make them, yea!

-- Anonymous, July 18, 2001

Happy Birthday, Beth.

-- Anonymous, July 18, 2001

Happy Birthday Beth!

-- Anonymous, July 18, 2001

"My birthday was July 7. I'm 28."

Nita! I have your birthday present sitting on our dining room table. It isn't finished yet, but isn't there a statute of limitations on this sort of thing, where people get 3 months to fete you?

Beth - your entry today cracked me up! Happy Birthday to you, Teen Supermodel and Cheerleader! Your healthy legs have served you well!

-- Anonymous, July 18, 2001

Happy Birthday. Screamin' Jay Hawkins would have been a year older too.

Birthdays are my business -- way too revealling, frankly. It' just another click on the human odometer. This year, Cancers are in for a wowser. Great, great advances. Huge favors done unto them by unlikely others. Too much work that's too much fun. Good stuff. -- Symboline www.moonsigns.net

-- Anonymous, July 18, 2001

Happy birthday, Beth! You should have a party and take pictures of the dogs with party hats on. Those are always great.

My birthday's within a few days of Thanksgiving, so I always got two or three parties a year--one at school if it was on a schoolday, one that weekend where I'd get to go to the Exploratorium or something like that with a few friends, and one with my grandparents at Thanksgiving Dinner. Now, I don't get any kind of party, so I guess it all balances out in the end... Turned 40 this year, and nothing happened. No party, no presents. Not that I'm bitter or anything.

-- Anonymous, July 18, 2001

Happy Birthday Beth! (and everyone else)

This year, I also turned 32. I wasn't really planning much. I went back east to visit my folks (Mom's birthday is four days before mine, Dad's three days after) coming back just in time to return to work on my actual birthday.

That night, I went out for drinks with some folks from work (my birthday had been remembered here without my having to prompt), and ended up having a nice evening getting high and watching Buffy with (one of) my work crush(es)... during drinks, I was talked into throwing myself a party that weekend.

Six weeks later, getting into the car at 2am in the Tenderloin, Iggy wished me a happy birthday again.

I said, "Don't I get to rest soon? I thought my birthday was over a month ago."

"Sorry," he said, "It's your birthday season."

And it was. I want to do that again next year, the ridiculous month- plus-long party. But I might be getting too old to survive that.

-- Anonymous, July 18, 2001

Happy birthday, Beth! For a July birthday in Sacramento, you certainly couldn't have asked for a nicer day.

As for me, my birthday is exactly one week from today, on the 25th. So when it comes to July birthdays in Sacramento, I know whereof I speak. They can be miserably hot if that's what the gods decree. I did manage to barely squeeze into the Leo camp, though. Except that Leo's don't believe in astrology, so I had to give it up.

Freuliche Geburtstag!

-- Anonymous, July 18, 2001

Happy Birthday Beth, Slickery, Lunesse, Denise! How was everyone's day? Me? I took the day off from work, slept in, played with the dog, puttered around, took many happy birthday phone calls, read for a while, napped, went out to dinner with friends. It was beautiful.

-- Anonymous, July 19, 2001

Happy brithday from a Dutch girl living in Ireland. I love your journal! Please go on another 32 years!! Marielle

-- Anonymous, July 19, 2001

Yes, Beth. Please live to be at least 64. Thank you.

-- Anonymous, July 19, 2001

Wow. It was EVERYBODIES birthday yesterday. A co-workers daughter (28) and my daughter (5) both had a birthday yesterday and now all of you.

Happy Birthday Beth.

-- Anonymous, July 19, 2001

I turn 30 in less than two months.

I am celebrating by moving to Scotland to go to graduate school. Seriously, I leave the day before my birthday and turn 30 somewhere between Chicago and Belgium (I'm flying via Brussels).

I figure that since I don't get drunk, and therefore cannot celebrate my birthday with a hangover, I might as well celebrate by being jetlagged, in a new country, in student debt, etc.

Two years ago I celebrated turning 28 by moving to Romania.

Yes, I know I'm weird.

-- Anonymous, July 19, 2001

P.S. Happy birthday, Beth!

-- Anonymous, July 19, 2001

Thank you, everybody! Jen: I'm trying.

-- Anonymous, July 19, 2001

My birthday is only a few days before Christmas, and what with flying home for Christmas and going to three households in 24 hours I gave it up a couple of years ago. Now I celebrate on April 1, and man, I play it up as much as I can. I love my birthday. I love turning a year older. I do. I'll be happy when I turn thirty because it's such a satisfying number. I know that's weird.

Happy birthday, Beth!

-- Anonymous, July 19, 2001

Beth, I hope you have a crummy, terrible, lousy rotten birthday, and that the other 364 days are happy and wonderful just to make up for it.

-- Anonymous, July 19, 2001

happy birthday beth! so DID the dogs get you anything? cards at least??

and gee, colin, my birthday's always around thanksgiving too. i turned 21 ON thanksgiving, that was weird. plus all four years i was in college we would go to boston to have thanksgiving with a rotating clutch of relatives, so i couldn't even let my friends from home (who i hadn't seen in months anyway) take me out and buy me stuff and wish me a happy. and the aforementioned relatives were usually too caught up with the whole thanksgiving thing to care.

me? bitter? nah.... no, really, i'm not. i like getting presents as much as the next person but i hate being the center of attention. my mom threw me a party for my 30th and it was three months late and i didn't care.

now i just let the folks take me out for sushi. mmm....

-- Anonymous, July 19, 2001

Happy birthday, Beth! My, what a big girl you're getting to be.

I think birthday observations should last for a week or so. Be sure Jeremy knows this.

-- Anonymous, July 19, 2001

This is the birthday Denise! Thank you everyone who wished me a happy one. I had a great day. I have this week off, because I don't believe in working on my birthday, and why take one day off when you can take the whole week? I went to my sister's house in the afternoon, and she made me the best dinner in the world (boiled dinner - that may be a regional thing - it's ham, cabbage, potatoes and carrots, all boiled slowly on the stove, so that everything gets flavored wonderfully. I hadn't had it in years, and it tasted great) and made me a homemade cake for dessert. And she's even going to re- do my bedroom for me! She's the coolest. And then, just to extend the celebration, we had a pool party at my house today, with her and most of her family and our grandmother. It was a blast. Thanks again for all the birthday wishes, and I hope everyone had as good a day as I did!

-- Anonymous, July 19, 2001

Hee-Hee!!!! Just thinking about birthdays make me happy. I like everyone else's just as well as mine, so happy birthday to one and all. I'm changing birthday traditions this year, but usually a bunch of friends and I get together for dinner somewhere, they make the waiter's sing to me, we all go to laser tag where I beat everyone's ass, and then back to someone's house for video's and ice cream 'til dawn. I am turning 20 on August 4th (woo-hoo no one can call me a teenager any longer!). My mom and I are going camping in NC for our birthdays this year(hers is on the 7th). It will be mostly her friends, but I love them too. My friends from school have already told me to watch my back when we get back on the 12th. I think they are planning to surprise the surprise party queen because I'm horrible about it. Smile all and happy birthday again!

Megs, the birthday queen (P.S. Who said Leo's don't believe in astrology?!?!)

-- Anonymous, July 20, 2001

I'm another one of those nasty passive-aggressive types, and I'm not proud of it. But I hate to make a big deal out of expecting things, and then have it be a huge letdown.

Of course, it's still a huge letdown even when I haven't made a big deal out of it, so I'm not quite sure what I think I'm accomplishing by this false reserve. I guess I just don't like pimping for presents or parties or wishes, or whatever.

It's October 3rd, but you won't hear that from me again. Nuh-uh.

-- Anonymous, July 20, 2001

I'm another around Thanksgiving birthday person. Which I have found to majorly suck because everyone is off eating turkey and doing family things. Like this year, my dad bought me a BARNEY cake and I sat around by myself all evening playing on the internet and watching my cat. But then again, I tell everyone to ignore my birthday because I don't particularily like holidays that require gifts, so its probably my fault!

Happy Birthday Week Beth!

-- Anonymous, July 20, 2001

this year on my birthday i went on a road trip by myself, driving 14/29 hours to pick up 3 new puglets! happy birthday to ME! my best friend's BD is June 16th & mine June 24th so we usually use these dates as an excuse to eat a LOT two weekends in a row (small things....).

i love birthdays! (but not as much as I love christmas....

-- Anonymous, July 25, 2001