Happy Birthday by Bonnie Le Hamilton

Okay, here goes, I still need to work on setting writing time, but this week has been a bit difficult because 1) I get paid this week, so I also have to pay bills this week 2) there is a holiday coming up 😊, lots of things will be closed Thursday including the banks, and finally 3) Friday is my birthday.

And yes, before anyone tries to remind me, it’s also Konnie’s birthday. I’m hardly going to forget that! Especially because of all the fights we had growing up about our birthday parties.

And believe me we fought.

First there was the cake. Konnie likes German chocolate cake with all those pecans and coconut. I’m not much for nuts in most of my sweets and I can’t tolerate coconut (it’s the texture – hate it) let alone the cherry on top (can’t stand cherries either). I always wanted an apple-spice or carrot cake, or a simple white cake with chocolate frosting. Anything but German chocolate, please!

Second there was the guests. At first, Konnie didn’t mind boys being at our parties, mostly because the majority of the guests were family, but about the time we turned ten she wanted a slumber party – as in no boys. My best friends were boys. One was even our cousin.

You get the picture.

As we moved into our teens, I did make friends with girls, but by then I also wanted boy/girl parties with dancing and music involved. Konnie still wanted a slumber party.

By our late teens we were having two parties, my boy/girl party during the day and her slumber party at night, and generally neither on our actually birthday. I usually got the week of our birthday, and she took a week later.

Actually, she was smart. Very few people were ever available for my parties because they always had plans with their family, whereas those same girls could make Konnie’s slumber party.

But that caused other problems. You wouldn’t believe how many people showed up at either party with just one present! Like they forgot there was two of us, or they expected us to share, and just as bad were the ones who got us identical gifts.

I know I mentioned our 6^th birthday when Konnie ended up with cactus tines or spines or whatever they’re called in her hands, and I had to open every gift, but have I mentioned our eight birthday where one aunt gave us a badminton set, our mother gave her a doll and me a teddy bear, and everyone else gave us identical gifts.

Maybe I have mentioned it.

But I also remember more than one of her slumber parties where the guests showed with just one gift in hand then the instant they saw me, they were like, “Oh, man I forgot!”

How can you forget someone is an identical twin?

Okay, now I can see it, when no one I know now is faced with having to tell us apart on a daily basis, but I’m talking about back when we still lived in the same house! Most of these people only saw us when we were together, yet they forgot there’s two of us?

Which seems weird now, because back then I was the one being forgotten, but now I tend to get more birthday greetings than Konnie does. Don’t ask me why. The last birthday party I threw for myself, on our birthday no less, only two guys showed up but neither brought gifts. (No one had RSVP’ed, though I’d asked them to.) And a week later several of those absent girls showed at our place for Konnie’s slumber/birthday party, but only a couple had two gifts. Yet now I have more friends then family who wish me a happy birthday while Konnie gets birthday greetings mostly just from family.

Why is that?

Now we don’t have the same friends, we don’t live close enough together for there to be overlap, but now I’m the one getting more birthday greetings.

Though I might add, I'm only getting greetings (mostly on facebook) and not many gifts. In the gifts the department, she probably gets more, because, let’s face it, she doesn’t live alone. Then again, maybe not. I do get gifts from a few friends whereas she doesn't.

And I could say more about our birthday, but the more important birthday is tomorrow, not Friday. Independence Day, our country’s birthday.

And with that I’m going to say, “Have a great weekend!”

Happy Birthday America, and Konnie.