Sweet.

…crazy birthday, dear Aylad, crazy birthday to me.

This is, without a doubt, the most insane birthday I’ve ever had.  It is also the most special.

My beautiful, thoughtful, loving wife remembered that several weeks ago I was complaining that I wanted to play Guitar Hero II, but couldn’t afford the guitar controller… so this morning, as soon as breakfast was finished, she couldn’t wait any longer to give me a suspiciously guitar-shaped package and a game-case-sized gift bag.

She really is perfect.

Her car, unfortunately, is slightly less perfect than it was a few hours ago.  She got rear-ended by a hit-and-run driver on the way to work (she’s fine, and the car isn’t that badly damaged).

When I got to work, I was setting up my classroom for a big standardized test when I heard what sounded like a tornado outside my building.  I called my parents, who live in the area; they hadn’t heard anything about severe weather, so I shrugged it off.

Meanwhile, the building was “shrugging off” half of its rooftop air ducts due to high winds.

Yeah.

Huge pieces of sheet metal now litter the parking lot.  One or two vehicles were damaged, but no one was injured, miraculously.  If it had happened ten minutes later, more students would have been arriving on campus, and there would have been blood.

The damage caused a gas leak… the day got even more interesting.  All eleven hundred students were evacuated to a building designed to accommodate about two hundred fifty individuals.

At this point, I was in high spirits.  The test had been called off, and plans were being made to close the school.  Great way to spend my birthday:  home early, playing Guitar Hero II.

The kids are gone now, and in a minute I’ll be going to a meeting to find out whether I really can leave early.

Wheeeeeeee!!!

(But… referring back to an earlier statement I made… the most important thing about today, by far, is the fact that I’M MARRIED.  This is my first married birthday.  I love you, dear.)

P.S. — YES!  I can leave at noon rather than the usual time of 3:30.  Quite a nice birthday indeed, although my wife will be jealous.

(Photo credit and License)