today's episode was brought to you by the letters T and L, and by the number 23...

ah birthdays...they take forever when we're younger. i swear i only aged once every two years until i turned 10. my birthdays have started to pick up their pace - not a sprinter's stride, more like a powerwalk. the last few have found me in places very different from the preceding year of my life. and everytime i'm like, "man! i could have never guessed i would be here a year ago." take that statement for better or for worse. it feels true to say that change has been the most constant thing (i'll put my nickel in the cliche jar after i'm done). i think birthdays are nice, really, and they ought to be celebrated because, well, if for no other reason we've managed to operate on a huge spinning dome for an entire year without flying off. so, i salute you birthday! i can truly say the day i met you i knew i would never be the same...

what is it about themes? i'm not going to attribute everything to my love of language and literature, so my inkling to give my birthday a theme is not (just) so that this year in my life will already have a chapter title for the book, but because the birthdays leading up to chronological adulthood have these bells and whistles about them - at 1 year you're actually a number; at 2 years you've learned to be a terror (funny, that one of the first descriptors we give to humans - "terrible" then they grow and become...i digress); at 10 years you are a two digit number, and every subsequent year from there to 13 you're a year closer to being a teenager; at 13 you have full permission to act outside of your mind and call it"growing up" or "puberty" or whatever other excuse we could come up with for acting a damn fool and being mad at our parents all the time; at 16 you're sweet (i'm not even going to speak on that); at 18 you're "legal" - or at least you can buy cigarettes; at 21 you are "all the way legal", for you can purchase your own liquid vices (rather than asking an older friend or something)...

then what? there's this thing i've only just been informed of called a "quarter life crisis." i think it occurs around 25 years. i don't know what it's all about; all i know is that there's assessing and reflection and resolutions and the like. similar to the midlife one, but without the perks. we have all of the neuroses without the benefit of being established enough to do something wild (because wild usually means expensive in one way or another). but that sounds like my every other weekend. then there's midlife - 35 years, where we endure major life changes (sometimes whether we want to or not). after that, what happens? according to thumb and his general rule, as women we just go on about our business and wait for menopause. that shit's for the birds. every birthday is valid because we have lived to see it. so, maybe that's why this notion of theme has come because we all deserve to be excited (whether it's to ourselves or outwardly is of no consequence)...

as i am new to 23, i think to myself, "what awesome attributes are connected to this #?" of course, michael jordan is the first in my mind. a mighty strong example too. what else? in 1923, the Cotton Club opened in Harlem and Jean Toomer published his seminal text CANE. these are all exceptional references, and therefore i am inspired to make my 23rd year "above the rim." to exceed not only succeed in my endeavors...

no, i didn't know all those things off the cuff, but i must admit the research part was fun. yeah, so maybe this is relevant or maybe just a way to pass the time. it's about whatever gets your mojo working, right? so what's your year-in-theme? any other takers for 23? i'm curious...

lov[e, ing] al[l]ways--