Those of you who are my parents, or who have a facebook account, know that yesterday was my birthday. Those of you who are on facebook know that this picture is of the facebook guy. Mark Zucherburger or something. Smart cat. But this post isn’t exactly about facebook, nor is it entirely about my birthday. It’s about how people used facebook to wish me a happy birthday. So I guess it’s about both. And it may be about something else later. We’ll see.
When one logs on to their facebook account, the homepage houses a sidebar telling them which of their friends have birthdays coming up, including friends whose birthday is that day. This is an extremely convenient feature, because it allowed fourty people to wish me happy birthday who would have been none the wiser had it not been for said sidebar. I recognize that; I don’t expect anyone to remember anyone else’s birthday (save spouses and other immediate family), so when people like Jessica Schmale call me on my birthday just to talk, unaware that it was in fact my birthday, I really don’t mind. I say that to make sure that you — the reader who went through their day yesterday unknowingly failing to celebrate my birth — won’t feel a need to apologize. I don’t mind. It’s not big deal.
Anyway, of those forty or so facebook well-wishes yesterday, a couple stood out and I felt the need to recognize them. I decided yesterday morning I was going to hold a contest for who could post the best birthday comment, but I didn’t tell anyone. Sneaky huh? I wanted to have a first, second, and third place, but only two really stood out. And here they are:
2nd Place: Jessica Schmale said, “I’m still writing Happy Birthday on your wall… even though I feel like a lame friend” (upon realizing it was my birthday when logging on to facebook hours after we’d talked on the phone)
and…
1st Place: Catlin Whatley said, “I never write facebook birthday messages to people I actually like… cool picture.”
I thought that was absolutely brilliant. Catlin is a girl I worked with in Brenham this summer, and she’s sarcastic, and it’s great.
So there you go. Congratulations to the winners of my contest in which nobody knew they were participating.
In closing I’d like to thank, as sincerely as I possibly can on a blog, the people who did anything for me today, even if it was just writing “happy birthday” on my wall (again, a facebook thing). Thanks for that, for the calls, emails, dinners (rents), and for just letting me be your friend. I’m far from deserving it. Thanks so much, and I love you people a ton. I’ll also thank in advance whoever posts a comment on this post.
