Twice as Old

Happy birthday to me!

It occurs to me that I'm more than twice as old as I was when my classmate and I made these signs:

and hitch-hiked from Freiburg, Germany over to the gorgeous town of Strasbourg, France:

and then re-crossed the French/German border in the company of a car-load of Algerians. Who ditched us right after we got across the border (I think we were more trouble than we were worth), so then we caught a ride on a big rig with a long-distance trucker, who didn't want to go into town when we neared Freiburg so he dropped us at a rest stop and we had to find someone who would take us into town from there.

Good times! And, good guess, Lynn. I'll grant you that much, seeing as how you made the whole pack-o-memetastic-lies happen in the first place....

Back to the present day, we had a low-key celebration. JoyDad took us all out to eat, and did all the Joy-packing and Joy-wrangling to make it possible (she really did very well, as restaurants go.) Rose made me a birthday card, and they gave me a book edited by a college classmate of mine, and this evening we're going to eat my traditional favorite -- as baked by JoyDad -- spice cake with penuche frosting.

Truth, Lies, and Memetasticity

Oh, I shouldn't-ta done that.

My latest Facebook status-update is a re-post of a status-update making fun of awareness-raising status-updates.

As karmic revenge, I've just been tagged for an award that makes fun of award-tagging! Unlike most awards, which by the time you get them you have no idea where they originated, this one was invented by Jillsmo from Yeah. Good Times. (And she, like, even admits it!)

The award was inflicted bestowed upon me by Lynn of My Life as an Ungraceful, Unhinged, and Unwilling Draftee into the Autism Army. The instructions are mighty foul-mouthed not entirely suitable for family blogging. So I'm going to abbreviate. Click on Lynn's link above to see what I've left out.

1. You must proudly display the absolutely disgusting graphic that I have created for these purposes...
2. You must list 5 things about yourself, and 4 of them must be bold-faced lies...
3. You must pass this award on to 5 bloggers that you either like or don't like or don't really have much of an opinion about...
4. If you fail to follow any of the above rules, I will... (yadda, yadda, yadda, see how scared I am!)
5. This one isn't actually a rule, but once you do the above, please link up to the Memetastic Hop so that I can keep track of where this thing goes.

OK, with all those bleepedy-bleep rules out of the way, here are my 5 statements, four of which are lies.

1. This is the last blog-award I am EVAH going to allow to waste my precious time (and yours). For reals.
2. I turned down two offers of marriage before JoyDad came along.
3. I am so allergic to make-up, I almost break out in hives just thinking about it.
4. I once hitch-hiked across the French/German border, in the company of another American, picked up by a carload of Algerians. The border guards had no idea what to make of us.
5. I took a stilt-walking gym class in college one semester, in which I learned to walk on clown stilts three feet high. Never looked so slender in my life, before or since!

There you go. Guess away if you must. And I'm not going to pass this on, nor even ask you to post your own truth-or-lies. 'Cause Jillsmo doesn't know me from a hole in the ground anyway. (Oh wait... is that Lynn who's going to carry out the dire threats?)