What day is it?

I've forgotten a lot of my birthdays through the years. It became almost a tradition. Strange that as one gets older and would like to forget them, more and more folks are eager to be the string around the finger.
Probably the most notable lapse - for me at least - the one that stands out in my mind - is of the birthday at BYU in 1962. It was right in the middle of finals. For CE101 the final was a project that involved producing the working drawings of an adjustable vise. As I remember we had to jockey for time in order to get enough time at a drafting table to comfortably complete the drawings without smudges, inconsistent lines, poor arrowheads, etc.. My bane were arrow heads… inconsistent lines… etc.. At least we didn't have to ink them.
It was my thinking that working late in the evening would give me a good amount time without interruption or distraction. And so after my last class on Monday I went to the "lab" resolved to finish the final sheets by the end of the evening. Things went fairly well and it didn't bother me that I missed supper. Even though it would've been the first good meal since Friday. Weekends were fend-for-yourself at 2320 North 835 East and I would either heat soup on my iron or try to choke down Helaman-Hall-cafeteria-test-kitchen-failures. Mostly I ate soup. Although there were some girls through the block that liked to exercise their mothering skills and could be counted on occasionally to save me from starvation. And so I didn't drag myself back to the dungeon until close to… well, I'm not sure when it was but the lights were out. Everyone was in bed. And there was a note on the table next to the cake my mother had arranged for.
The note "thanked" me for not showing up at my birthday party. Indelicately worded but still within the guidelines of the Honor Code.

The one that I didn't forget but still missed the party was my seventeenth. I was grounded and my friends had arranged a surprise party. They assumed since I was able to talk myself out of about anything and considering the situation… it seemed liked a slam dunk. Alas…
That one I wish I could forget.

On the other side of the coin - of all my birthdays I think the one I've most enjoyed is the one at Gari of Sushi watching Ninja Warriors with my guys. That's the real thing…