Unlike other years, my birthday really crept up on me this year without my knowing it. One day, it was mid-September and sunny out, the next thing I knew, it was late October and only about 2 weeks away from my turning 24. It actually took someone reminding me about it for me to even think about it.

Fortunately they did, otherwise my drivers license would have expired and I would have been in some trouble. Instead, I went in and renewed it with a couple days to spare, and enjoyed the experience that is the DMV. I'm not sure if it's something that's mandatory in every state, but every time I've had to go into the DMV here, it seems like they're both understaffed and highly unorganized. I sat in the waiting room for just over an hour before I was called in to be offered a written test to take (Yes, I got one speeding ticket in the past four years, but I was cheated, I swear!). After sitting down with the test and a felt-tip pen, it was approximately 4.5 minutes before I was up at the counter again handing in the test.

The guy working there said to me, "Did you take the test?" I replied that I had, and he muttered something about just giving it to me. Needless to say, he was surprised (as I kind of was) when I didn't miss any questions. I was shuffled off in the direction of another counter and paid my fee and got my picture taken (which came out quite well, fortunately). So, although the test had only taken 5 minutes to complete, I had been gone from work for 1 hour and 45 minutes with the drive to and fro.

Really, that's the worst of my birthday this year, though. In the past for some reason, I always ended up looking forward to my birthday with a sort of dread. For about the last 5 years, I went through a very anti-aging stage where celebrating my birthday meant that I was one year closer to dying. Although technically that's still my same assessment, I'm just not as worried about my birthday as I used to be. Sure, I'm 24, but it's really not that big of a deal to me. When I turn 25, I'm hoping that it will be the same way.

Partially, I think that the problem used to be that I really looked for reasons to be upset about my getting older. One year, it was that I was getting out of shape, and another year it was something else silly. This year, (besides forgetting about it until it was almost upon me), I guess I've just had a different attitude about it all. The only two people that really even know about it (unless it slipped out somehow at work) are my two close friends, and we don't have too big of plans, save catching a movie and going dancing like usual.

One of the things that's making this birthday so much better already (please note: sarcasm starting now) is the fact that I found out that someone quite famous turns 24 just one day before me. Since I know I've piqued your attention, that person is none other than Leonardo DiCaprio (girls can faint now). For some reason, I always thought that he was younger than me (perhaps it's because he looks like he's about 17), but a couple days ago I read on the internet that he's planning a big bash with all his Hollywood friends. So, here's Leo DiCaprio, a famous, rich guy who jets around with an entourage of models who looks like he's still in his teens. The thing is, though, that he's still one day older than me. Wait a minute, now I feel like shit.

Actually, though, it doesn't really bother me too much one way or the other. It's really just a funny anecdote, and besides, maybe I'll get myself into Tigerbeat or Bop one of these days anyway (but I doubt it). What's actually even more interesting are the people who actually share the same birthday as me. The first notible is singer / wacky girl Bjork (9 years older than me). As far as people on the cool list, I could have worse people to share my birthday with. Which brings me to the other notible who burst out of the womb on a November 12th--Charles Manson. Well, one cool person is enough anyway.

So that's about it. Three days from 24, and I'm not sweating it in the slightest. The cool thing about it is that it probably won't be that much different from any other day, which will make it quite nice. The part that I've always kind of disliked about birthdays is that there's a sort of un-spoken pressure to act differently than you normally do. I'm sure I'll still get presents, and I won't argue with those, because I do believe that people should be rewarded just for surviving another year.

If you're really bored, mail me and wish me happy 24th.

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