Happy birthleapday

Today is, of course, Leap Day, which only occurs once every four years. I was not born on Leap Day, but I am thinking that it might not be such a bad thing to have a birthday every four years instead of every year. When someone would inquire about your age, this would allow you to say things like, "On my last birthday I turned 16." Astonished, that person would undoubtedly ask what you do to look so young, and you could name pretty much anything -- a diet consisting entirely of foods that begin with O, for example -- and inspire awe in a complete stranger. It would be severely misguided awe, but some of us have to take our awe however we can.


But I was born in April, and the Hero in February, and we like to celebrate our birthdays each year. We firmly believe that the birthday person is special and should get to decide what both of us will do on his or her special day. This belief in the Supreme Reign of the Birthday Person led, this year, to my watching the entire Super Bowl with the Hero, which occurred around his birthday.


This might be considered magnanimous of me, were I not thinking of my own birthday, and what torture I could devise to get back at him. He is fully aware of this, and believes that my retaliation will involve spending an inordinate number of hours watching Pride & Prejudice.


"There are a lot of versions," I mused. "Maybe we should watch one I haven't seen yet."


"Yeah," he said, brightening. "Like maybe a vampire or zombie version."


"Um, no," I said. "I don't think there are any vampire or zombie movie versions."


"Is there one that takes place in outer space?" he said hopefully.


"No," I said. "Maybe we should just watch them all."


This, of course, was said in jest, because there is always his birthday NEXT year to keep my revenge in check. The Super Bowl PLUS a graphic war movie, maybe, or a nine-hour mini-series about how guitars are made...