My Birthday Was Hijacked

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Disney shadowed me for years before creating the show "Liv & Maddie". Alright, maybe not, but they could not have more accurately portrayed my relationship with my twin sister. Congrats to Dove Cameron on that - both of you!

Image by Luca Upper Photography via Unsplash
For as long as I can remember, my twin sister and I have had only two things in common: our birthday, and our last name. (Although this year that increased to three because we also shared a sinus cold.) Besides that, our tastes tend to differ dramatically in food, music, and hobbies. This makes it difficult to agree on a plan of mutual celebration for our shared birthday.

This year we discussed it once again at length. Because of our family's avid zeal for sports, we decided to enjoy some friendly, athletic competition at none other than, you guessed it: Chuck E. Cheese's! Well, since we both woke up sick, we decided to cancel that plan (at least temporarily) and stay home with our tissues, coffee, and peppermint tea.

Instead of raucous celebration the day was primarily spent quietly responding to 3.2 kazillion birthday wishes on social media. My younger sister added to the festivities by presenting me with a pet balloon named Fritz! She also spent most of the afternoon concocting delectable home-made pot pies and chocolate pudding. Score!

It is safe to say that I have spent my birthday in more enjoyable ways in the past, but as an eternal optimist I cannot say that it was bad. No, it was actually quite good in a unique way. No, it was terrrrrrrrrific! Here are a few reasons that made it the best worst birthday I've ever had:

1. Coffee. Of course, coffee! The great thing about having a cold on my birthday is that it warrants making stronger coffee. My Minnesotan upbringing has taught me well how to appreciate strong coffee, and that makes any occasion better!

2. Music. Always music. Music is, in my Pearlspective, essential to celebration, so after dinner we watched The Music Man, which has some of the best music and comedy in cinema history and I can't help smiling when I watch it. Of course, I couldn't sing along as well with a cold since baritone isn't my strength.

3. Reality. The reality is that even if it wasn't perhaps the ideal celebration by American cultural standards, it was still a birthday. A birthday isn't a milestone in the history of festive occasions, it's merely a day in the life of an individual. Just like any other day, it's here and gone and life goes on. Good news, folks: I had a birthday so my life goes on!

Yeah, my birthday was hijacked this year. Maybe I'll go to Chuck E. Cheese's some other day and maybe I won't, but I'm still celebrating. I'm celebrating every day that life goes on, by living each one! How are you celebrating today? TTFN!

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