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Thursday, April 30, 2015

Today Should Have Been My Birthday

Okay, so I decided to start the four year anniversary celebrations one day early.  And I did so for a very specific reason.

Before I get into that though, I just thought I would get into detail over what you all can expect over the next month...no, wait.  Scratch that.  I'll show you what you can expect until the first part of June, because that's how long this anniversary celebration is going to last.

So, you had your say, and you decided that you wanted to hear a month of personal stories.  And, well, I am actually happy that most of you picked that option, as that was the route that I really wanted to go anyway. 

But the more I thought about it...the more I thought...well, what if I tell you thirty-four personal stories - one for every year that I've been alive?  I would start from birth and tell you one personal story from each year of my life.  I'd of course, pepper each entry with a little bit of pop culture. 

You see, each entry will start with the top movie at the box office the week I was born, the top rated television show that year, and the #1 song the week I was born.  I don't really have to do this, but I find it fun to see what was popular around each of my birthdays.

Now, I'll be doing this six of the seven days of the week.  The Tuesday Timeline entries will probably go ahead as normal, but I will say that each Tuesday Timeline spotlight during the month of May will take place between 1981 and 2014.  After all, that's the only time period that I've been around for.  Hence the need for the anniversary celebration to expand into June.

But take it from me.  You'll probably learn a lot more about me than you wanted to know.



So, let's start at the very beginning, shall we?  A personal story from year...I guess you could say zero.

And, I know what you're thinking.  You're probably thinking, how the hell can you remember any sort of detail from the first year of your life?  Truth is...I can't.  In fact, the first three or four years are going to be stories told to me by my family members.  And, well...I guess I sort of have to trust them, right? 

So, here goes.  We'll start with the prerequisite baby picture.



Can't believe I was ever that tiny!

YEAR ZERO STATS - 5/18/81 - 5/17/82



#1 SONG THE WEEK OF 5/18/81
Bette Davis Eyes/KIM CARNES



#1 MOVIE AT THE BOX OFFICE WEEK OF 5/18/81
"Happy Birthday To Me"

(How appropriate!)



#1 SHOW OF THE 1981-1982 SEASON
"Dallas"

And the title of this blog entry might confuse you.  The title being "Today Should Have Been My Birthday" might seem like a bit of a weird title to give this piece, but the thing is...it's absolutely the truth.

You see...my actual date of birth was supposed to have been April 30, 1981.  I was born nearly three weeks later.  Can you say overdue?

Can you say "extremely patient mother"? 

Here's the story behind that.  I won't bore you with the details of how I came into this world because by now, I'm sure most of you probably know how it happened.  And if you don't...lord help you.  All you need to know is that my conception happened sometime during the summer of 1980.

And given that my mom's original due date was supposed to have been April 30, counting back nine months meant that I was supposedly conceived sometime between July 26 and August 2, 1980.

But for some reason, April came and went, and most of May passed by before my mom was brought into the hospital to give birth to me.  And it was my actual birthdate in which the doctor who delivered me exclaimed that I was way overdue!

Not premature.  Not on time.  Overdue.  By eighteen days!

So much for conception at the end of July.  More like the beginning of the month!

Not that it mattered all that much.  I was born on a Monday morning at 7:35am.  Even though I was an overdue baby, my birth weight was just under six pounds.  But hey, I guess you could say that I was kind of an oddity from the very beginning.  After all, I basically stayed in the womb a full eighteen days past what I was supposed to.  It's a wonder my poor mother didn't serve me an eviction notice.

Of course these days, women are induced into labour long before that ever happens, so I don't think you'll see too many cases where babies were born nearly three weeks past their due date.  I guess I could call myself a rarity.

But you know, looking back on it, I'm glad I decided to wait before coming out in a way.  My original birthday was supposed to have been April 30.  April 30 is the deadline to file your taxes in Canada.  Do I really want to share my birthday with the day that stresses most Canadians out the most?  Probably not.  I also would have been born on the anniversary of the day that Adolf Hitler killed himself.  Nice.

And, having an April 30 birthday meant going to school each day my birthday fell on a weekday.  Which would have been five of the seven days.  Which completely would have sucked.

Now, a May 18 birthday on the other hand?  Well, May 18 is later in the year and closer to summer, so chances are that it was going to be a warm day.  Unfortunately, it meant more of a chance of rain (I'll talk about that in a future blog entry).  And if May 18 falls on a Monday, it's a statutory holiday in Canada.  And as it so happens, this year, my birthday falls on Victoria Day!  What a great year this is going to be.  Funny, I was born on Victoria Day as well.  I suppose this could be considered a full circle kind of year!

No matter what, I was born thirty-four years ago this upcoming month.  And while I was supposed to be an April baby, I think May suits me better.

So stay tuned for some more personal stories from the memory banks of this pop culture addict.  We've only just begun.

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