Hello again! I'm in college now and have already established a reputation as Birthday Keeper among the people here. Whenever a girl on my floor has a birthday, I leave a sticky note with "Happy birthday! -Maria" next to her name on her door. I recently went on the Facebook pages of everyone on the floor to make sure I had everyone's birthday written down. I would feel awful if I missed a hallmate's birthday.
Whenever someone comes to visit me and my roommate for the first time, I analyze his or her birthday using the book 365 Birthdays Interpreted by Michele Knight. I then go to famousbirthdays.com to discover which celebrities share our visitor's birthday. Sometimes I take it to another level and look up which celebrities share our visitor's zodiac sign. One friend of my roommate's, upon hearing that he shared his zodiac sign with a member of One Direction, said "Never mind, that's not my zodiac sign anymore."
My roommate's eighteenth birthday occurred during the first month of classes. I got her a stuffed dog at the gift shop in the student union building and set it on her desk before I went to bed the night before her birthday, since I knew she would wake up earlier than me. (I sleep late on Wednesdays since I don't have classes until after lunch.) She was pleased with the stuffed animal and said "Birthday Keeper strikes again."
I've been very busy with three honors courses but I still try to keep track of everyone's birthdays in all my classes. In the paper I wrote about this blog for my senior project (see my earlier post about my senior project presentation), I said "I hope I become a birthday keeper among my college friends too." I am happy to say that that prediction has come true.
Half birthday shoutouts to Uncle Steve and Anna
Showing posts with label Personal stories. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Personal stories. Show all posts
October 26, 2013
July 7, 2013
Eighteenth birthday
Today I, Birthday Keeper, legally became an adult. When I woke up I found nine small presents waiting outside my door. When I was younger, it was a tradition for my parents to give me the same number of small presents as the year I was turning on my birthday morning. The most memorable instance was my sixth birthday. We'd gone to a baseball game the night before and spent the night at a hotel. When I woke up, I found six round packages waiting for me. My dad said "Maybe Mom got you baseballs." The packages were actually gift balls - they unraveled and small presents, including erasers and troll dolls, fell out. Once I became a teenager my parents added up the numbers in my age to determine how many presents I would receive in the morning. So, today I received nine, since 1 + 8 = 9. These nine presents included Pop-Tarts. My birthday is the only time of year when I eat Pop-Tarts.
A friend came over in the afternoon and we went downtown. After she left I went out to dinner with my parents. In my family, the birthday person gets to pick where to eat dinner. When we got home I had a handmade card to look at and a few more presents to open. Then it was time to decorate my cake. It was star-shaped, as it always is.
There were twelve candles on the cake - nine for numerology (1 + 8 = 9) and one each for good health, good wealth, and good luck.
When I was a little kid, I thought every family celebrated birthdays the same way. I remember being surprised to find out that not everyone received the same number of presents as the age they were turning. The research I have done in the past year has helped me to see that birthdays are different everywhere, but no matter what, a birthday is always a day to celebrate.
A friend came over in the afternoon and we went downtown. After she left I went out to dinner with my parents. In my family, the birthday person gets to pick where to eat dinner. When we got home I had a handmade card to look at and a few more presents to open. Then it was time to decorate my cake. It was star-shaped, as it always is.
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| My cake was frosted purple and decorated to look like leopard fur |
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| Blowing out my candles! |
July 5, 2013
Early birthday celebration
In a post on sharing birthdays with holidays, I mentioned my family's annual Fourth of July celebration. On Fourth of July, my mother's family gets together to celebrate all the summer birthdays in the family, including my grandpa's, which is on Independence Day itself, and mine, which is three days later. I've stopped singing names during Happy Birthday at the family birthday parties since the names always get mixed up. Seven birthdays were celebrated today; however, there were only three cakes.
Many people eat more than one kind of cake at the family birthday parties. Today, I ate my chocolate cake as well as my grandpa's white chocolate cheesecake. After we were finished with cake, it was time for birthday people to open presents. I was happy to get gift cards to several of my favorite stores, as well as a calendar for me to use while in college.
We left my aunt's house around six and drove back home in time for the fireworks. Some people might say that Independence Day would not be the same without fireworks. However, for me, Fourth of July would not be the same without the family birthday celebration. We took my cake home. Less than half is left, and that is probably a good thing because I'll get another cake on Sunday, my real birthday.
Birthday shoutouts to Shana, myself, Paige, and Nick
Half birthday shoutouts to Emily and Luke
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| Our three birthday cakes. Mine is the chocolate cake at the bottom right. |
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| Grandpa and me blowing out birthday candles! |
We left my aunt's house around six and drove back home in time for the fireworks. Some people might say that Independence Day would not be the same without fireworks. However, for me, Fourth of July would not be the same without the family birthday celebration. We took my cake home. Less than half is left, and that is probably a good thing because I'll get another cake on Sunday, my real birthday.
Birthday shoutouts to Shana, myself, Paige, and Nick
Half birthday shoutouts to Emily and Luke
May 17, 2013
Presentation
I originally started this blog as a required senior project for my
school. In recent weeks I have been very busy studying for finals and AP
tests, so I did not post regularly. Now that my senior project is
finished, I no longer create educational posts every Saturday night;
however, I do hope to still post about birthday celebrations in my
family.
Seniors at my high school have been busy presenting their senior projects this week. We had to sign up for time slots last month. Each two-hour presentation time slot consists of four students presenting in the presence of two teachers, one of whom is the senior project coordinator at my high school. Presentations continue into next week, but I signed up for the earliest time slot, which was on Tuesday morning. (I wasn't able to post about my presentation until now because I was busy with AP tests.)
Prior to presenting, seniors had to compile a portfolio or annotated bibliography and write a three page reflection paper about their projects. I chose to keep an annotated bibliography. What with all the research I have done for my educational posts, my annotated bibliography was 43 pages. I actually really enjoy putting sources into MLA format, so I did not mind having to keep such an extensive works cited page. Thankfully I didn't have to print it! I had no problem meeting the three page requirement for the reflection paper; my paper was over four pages since there is so much to say about birthdays.
I presented third in my time slot. The first student had created a recipe book and discussed how she hopes to continue cooking in college. She even brought in samples of her food, which was great. The second student had studied how diet and exercise affected his health. He was very informative and had obviously done a lot of research about different factors that affect health. I was next. I presented a PowerPoint that discussed my lifelong fascination with birthdays, my decision to keep a blog for my senior project, and my experiences researching the many topics I covered in my educational posts. I then showed this blog to my classmates and teachers. I also showed them my annotated bibliography at the request of the senior project coordinator. The fourth student, who was an exchange student in Germany last year, had taught German to two high school juniors. She showed us a video of the two boys speaking in German (with English subtitles so everyone could understand it!) All the presentations were extremely interesting. I really enjoyed learning about everyone's unique projects; I wish I could have seen other people's presentations too.
Soon after I got home, I received an email with my senior project evaluation form. I am proud to say that I got honors on my project (the three categories were fail, pass, and honors.) Seniors were graded in five areas (preparation, research, project, presentation, and reflection paper) on a 1-to-5 scale, where 1 indicated no effort, 3 indicated that requirements were met, and 5 indicated that a student went above and beyond the requirements. I got a 5 on preparation, a 5 on research, a 4 on the project itself, a 3 on the presentation, and a 4 on my reflection paper.
Being Birthday Keeper has been a great experience for me this year. I am much more aware of other cultures and their celebrations and understand research techniques that will help me in college. I was very happy to receive such a high grade on my project; I can end high school proud of my accomplishments. On a similar note, I have been named salutatorian of my class and am glad AP tests are over because I have to write a speech for graduation!
Birthday shoutouts to Uncle Jim, Uncle Norm, Uncle Martin, and Jeff
Half birthday shoutouts to Max
Seniors at my high school have been busy presenting their senior projects this week. We had to sign up for time slots last month. Each two-hour presentation time slot consists of four students presenting in the presence of two teachers, one of whom is the senior project coordinator at my high school. Presentations continue into next week, but I signed up for the earliest time slot, which was on Tuesday morning. (I wasn't able to post about my presentation until now because I was busy with AP tests.)
Prior to presenting, seniors had to compile a portfolio or annotated bibliography and write a three page reflection paper about their projects. I chose to keep an annotated bibliography. What with all the research I have done for my educational posts, my annotated bibliography was 43 pages. I actually really enjoy putting sources into MLA format, so I did not mind having to keep such an extensive works cited page. Thankfully I didn't have to print it! I had no problem meeting the three page requirement for the reflection paper; my paper was over four pages since there is so much to say about birthdays.
I presented third in my time slot. The first student had created a recipe book and discussed how she hopes to continue cooking in college. She even brought in samples of her food, which was great. The second student had studied how diet and exercise affected his health. He was very informative and had obviously done a lot of research about different factors that affect health. I was next. I presented a PowerPoint that discussed my lifelong fascination with birthdays, my decision to keep a blog for my senior project, and my experiences researching the many topics I covered in my educational posts. I then showed this blog to my classmates and teachers. I also showed them my annotated bibliography at the request of the senior project coordinator. The fourth student, who was an exchange student in Germany last year, had taught German to two high school juniors. She showed us a video of the two boys speaking in German (with English subtitles so everyone could understand it!) All the presentations were extremely interesting. I really enjoyed learning about everyone's unique projects; I wish I could have seen other people's presentations too.
Soon after I got home, I received an email with my senior project evaluation form. I am proud to say that I got honors on my project (the three categories were fail, pass, and honors.) Seniors were graded in five areas (preparation, research, project, presentation, and reflection paper) on a 1-to-5 scale, where 1 indicated no effort, 3 indicated that requirements were met, and 5 indicated that a student went above and beyond the requirements. I got a 5 on preparation, a 5 on research, a 4 on the project itself, a 3 on the presentation, and a 4 on my reflection paper.
Being Birthday Keeper has been a great experience for me this year. I am much more aware of other cultures and their celebrations and understand research techniques that will help me in college. I was very happy to receive such a high grade on my project; I can end high school proud of my accomplishments. On a similar note, I have been named salutatorian of my class and am glad AP tests are over because I have to write a speech for graduation!
Birthday shoutouts to Uncle Jim, Uncle Norm, Uncle Martin, and Jeff
Half birthday shoutouts to Max
April 5, 2013
Family birthday party
My mom's family gets together several times a year to celebrate all the birthdays in that time of year. The birthday celebration often coincides with a holiday. I mentioned our annual Fourth of July/ summer birthday celebration in an earlier post. We also get together on Easter to celebrate winter and spring birthdays. Our recent celebration included all birthdays from January through March, ten birthdays total. There were three cakes.
Imagine singing Happy Birthday at a birthday party like this one! No one sings the names of the birthday people in the same order. I have taken to not singing names when singing Happy Birthday at a family birthday party.
After eating cake, presents are distributed to the birthday people and opened. Many pictures are taken. There is usually some confusion. Our birthday parties are always crazy and loud, but I would not want them any other way. I look forward to every family birthday party.
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| Our Easter/ birthday party with three cakes! |
After eating cake, presents are distributed to the birthday people and opened. Many pictures are taken. There is usually some confusion. Our birthday parties are always crazy and loud, but I would not want them any other way. I look forward to every family birthday party.
January 31, 2013
My parents' birthdays
My parents were born one year and five days apart. They both celebrated their birthdays in the past week. When I was a kid I thought people could only get married if they had birthdays in the same week.
My dad's birthday was last Friday. He always has the same birthday cake, a chocolate sponge cake filled with cocoa-flavored whipped cream and topped with semisweet chocolate icing and powdered sugar glaze. More information on this cake can be found on my mom's blog, Cats From Mars.
My mom's birthday was yesterday. For the past few years she has had an oatmeal cake. (However, I remember her having other cakes as well.) This cake is well-liked and always gets eaten up quickly.
The most entertaining part of my parents' birthday week is seeing the cards they make for each other. My mom, who makes cards out of vintage materials (this can be seen on Cats From Mars), usually makes a birthday card for my dad pertaining to a certain theme. My dad then finds humorous images relating to that theme and makes my mom a card on the computer with those images. The theme is usually animal-related; this time, it was horses.
Five days later, my dad gave my mom a card that included pictures of runaway horses. It is always amusing to celebrate my parents' birthdays, and I will definitely miss being there for their birthdays when I am away at college next year.
My dad's birthday was last Friday. He always has the same birthday cake, a chocolate sponge cake filled with cocoa-flavored whipped cream and topped with semisweet chocolate icing and powdered sugar glaze. More information on this cake can be found on my mom's blog, Cats From Mars.
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| My dad's birthday cake: credits to Cats From Mars |
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| My mom's birthday cake: credits to Cats From Mars |
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| My dad's birthday card: credits to Cats From Mars |
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