Reflecting on the Previous 25…

July 25, 2006 | 11:18 PM

Kevin asked me to change the post. I had expressed my satisfaction for the previous 25 years of my life. But I think maybe he was right. So here’s a new post in its stead. A reflection on the previous 25 birthdays.

25. New Orleans, Louisiana: Today for entertainment I went to the grocery store and post office, played stickball with Kyle in the rain, cooked pancakes for dinner, hit a couple apples with my bat exploding them into oblivion (which was AWESOME) and watched the movie Sahara.

24. Metropolis, Illinois: The day before, I drove from Richmond, Kentucky to Paducah, Kentucky after spending the weekend at aforementioned Kyle’s wedding. I got to see Abraham Lincoln’s childhood home and a log cabin or two. But the best part was seeing Superman’s home in Metropolis, Illinois on my way to Mississippi on my birthday. When I got home that evening, I blogged about the day’s events.

23. Mobile, Alabama: My friend Katie talked me into driving down to church to watch our VBS. I was bored to death. Rickshaw Rally… right.

22. Columbus, Ohio: I visited Columbus Zoo on my way out of town, and ended up in Huntsville, Alabama with my brother by around midnight. It was the fourth or fifth night of my trip up the East Coast, which involved stops in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virigina, Maryland, Delaware, DC, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohip, Kentucky, Indiana, Tennessee, and Alabama.

21. Mobile, Alabama: Mom called at 5:15AM from Waco, Texas, to tell me my grandmother had finally passed. We had expected it for two weeks, and the night before felt certain that she would die overnight. She did. Later that day I had an economics exam at the University of Mobile, which I can honestly say I failed miserably.

20-19. Mobile, Alabama: On my twentieth, I think I was working at Books a Million. On my nineteenth, I don’t remember.

18. Mobile, Alabama: I went to church on my own volition for the first time ever. Like Sunday church, not just Wednesday church. Five days prior, I’d become a Christian, or at least renewed something.

17-14: Mobile, Alabama: Not much happened, really. Not much at all. Some friends and I hung out. One year it rained real hard, and I think we might have seen Twister in the theater. Something like that. It almost always rains on my birthday because it’s summer in the Deep South.

13: Long Beach, Mississippi: We moved from Long Beach to Mobile. The last moving van left the house on July 25, 1994.

12: Long Beach, Mississippi: I spent the night at my friend Matt’s house. During the night, his parents got a call and it left me nervous. I felt like something was wrong. The next morning, my mom and brother got me really early (like 6:30AM) and we drove to the hospital. They said Dad had a heart attack. I didn’t believe them, and expected him to pop out somewhere. Secretly, I believed that all the way to the hospital room, until I saw him laying in that bed.

11-7: Long Beach, Mississippi: I don’t remember much happening during these years. Probably typical birthdays involving lots of miniature hellraisers, pizza, and cake. One of those birthdays (either seven, eight, or nine), my brother said all he could afford to buy me was a pack of baseball cards. But I knew he had more. He kept telling me he only had that one pack, but I harrassed him. Finally I got really upset. I’m not sure if it was because I felt bad for harrassing him (maybe he convinced me he hadn’t had more than one) or if it was because I was selfish. Either way, I remember tearing up and feeling terrible. Thanks, Rick, for making me feel so guilty all these years later.

6: Long Beach, Mississippi: This was my first birthday in Long Beach. We moved there on July 7th 1987. I got a rope swing that I loved, but outgrew too fast. I really did like that rope swing. A lot.

5-3. Hattiesburg, Mississippi: I’m positive I remember very little about these years. I remember a party once where I had a pinata. But I don’t remember who was invited. In fact, I’m certain most of them weren’t my friends. I only had one or two of those. And there were more than a few present. I was a party animal early on (this IS me, and no, it wasn’t taken on my birthday).