yo, shortie, it’s yo birthday we gonna party like . . .

a birthday alone is pretty difficult for most people.  facebook makes you feel a lot like you’re not alone because it shoots out reminders every day of all the friends who are having birthdays.  i try to send a message to the birthday boy or girl.  yo, shortie, it’s your birthday! 

long before facebook, i had a birthday that seemed like it was going to be one of those depressing solitary experiences.  i had moved out of the patrick’s house when i was just shy of fifteen, i had somehow graduated from college (sideswiping that high school degree) and had gotten into law school.  i applied to northwestern law school because i knew how to get there from the train station.  

i moved into the lawson ymca four blocks from northwestern law school. my world was in between the two buildings. the first night i stayed at the lawson a man jumped out of a window and killed himself. it happened frequently during the three years i lived there.

 i worked as a research assistant for dick speidel, my contracts professor.  margie worked as a research assistant as well and although she didn’t know me very well, she knew when my birthday came up and she took me to lunch.  i am still grateful to her.  do you have someone on your facebook friendship list who needs to be taken to lunch for their birthday?

we lost track of each other after law school graduation but we’re facebook friends.  she’s a fancy schmancy professor at the university of oregon law school.  i’m so damned impressed!!! 

and then i had a legal question. . . .

a little while after lunch, the sun came up in portland and it was time for me to say goodbye to f2fb friend #281–i am so glad i got a chance to hear the second quarter has gone well for this gal!!