...and so begins the descent....I'll take you all with me!

I woke up this morning an older man....one day older than yesterday, and one year older than one year ago today. Thirty Five years to be more precise. In celebration I have made these plans: First, to drink my birthday cups of coffee, during which I'll take a birthday handful of xanax. Before the shitting and vomitting starts I'll take the time to share with you some of my birthday's fun facts!

First, my horoscope today:

You'll be in a world of your own today while people around you will be clamoring for your attention. Their demands might irritate you, because you will clearly need a bit of space from company in order to recharge your batteries, so book yourself into a spa to secure a couple of hours for yourself.

My Birthday horoscope:

For those of us born on: February 5
Happy Birthday! The months ahead will see you being emotionally detached from the people around you and you'll discover a level of self discipline that will help you cope with the demands of work or school. Your emotions will balance out again, especially when a romantic interest catches your eye. July will be a challenging month, when you will feel more restless than usual, but by contrast November will be a dream, where youll feel on top of the world!

Which I have to say, is drastically different from last years:

For those of us born on: February 5
Fuck You! The months ahead will hopefully kill you. June will be a challenging month, forcing you to never trust anyone ever again....and giving you a new hatred for Buddy Holly, of all things. Do you hear that? That is the winds of change blowing, you bastard....and they smell like a miso soup fart, don't they? Choke on it, you bald fuck!

Other people born this day:

Sir Robert Peel was born on 5th of February in 1788
Adlai E. Stevenson, Jr. was born on 5th of February in 1900
Adlai Stevenson was born on 5th of February in 1900
John Carradine was born on 5th of February in 1906
William Burroughs was born on 5th of February in 1914
Red Buttons was born on 5th of February in 1919
Andrew Greeley was born on 5th of February in 1928
Father Andrew Greeley was born on 5th of February in 1928
Hank Aaron was born on 5th of February in 1934
Henry Hank Aaron was born on 5th of February in 1934
H.R. Giger was born on 5th of February in 1940
David Selby was born on 5th of February in 1941
Jane Bryant Quinn was born on 5th of February in 1941
Roger Staubach was born on 5th of February in 1942
Stephen J. Cannell was born on 5th of February in 1942
Barbara Hershey was born on 5th of February in 1948
Christopher Guest was born on 5th of February in 1948
Jennifer Jason Leigh was born on 5th of February in 1962
Laura Linney was born on 5th of February in 1964
Bobby Brown was born on 5th of February in 1969
Jeremy Sumpter was born on 5th of February in 1989

I'm kinda pleased about the Giger and Burroughs birthdays....and I'd like to share a birthday party with Jennifer J. Leigh, because that would be fun I suspect.

Here's some "This Day in History" Crap for ya:

1936 Modern Times with Charlie Chaplin debuts
A riot squad is called out for crowd control on this day in 1936 at the premiere of Charlie Chaplin's film Modern Times, co-starring Paulette Goddard, whom he secretly married the same year. Enormous crowds gathered on Broadway outside the Rivoli Theater to see Douglas Fairbanks, Gloria Swanson, George Burns, Ginger Rogers, and other stars arrive for the film's debut.


1883 Southern Pacific Railroad completes "Sunset Route"
The Southern Pacific Railroad completes its transcontinental "Sunset Route" from New Orleans to California, consolidating its dominance over rail traffic to the Pacific.


1937 Chaplin vs. the Machine Age
In 1936, Charlie Chaplin had just wrapped up City Lights and was preparing to visit the nation's auto mecca, Detroit. A reporter for the New York World learned of Chaplin's trip and urged the star to swing by the city's "factory belt system." As Chaplin recounts in his autobiography, the reporter told a "harrowing story of big industry luring healthy men off the farms who, after four or five years at the belt system, became nervous wrecks." Duly intrigued, Chaplin toured Ford's Highland Park plant, and after seeing the factory belt in action, set to work on his next movie, Modern Times. Production on the movie had its share of bumps. Modern Times was set to be Chaplin's first foray into the world of talkies, but despite shooting audio tests and scenes with dialog, Chaplin opted again for his traditional silent route, save for a song. The movie was also subject to a swirl of politically charged rumors, as studio leaks suggested that film would be little more than Red propaganda. However, when Modern Times premiered on February 5, 1937, the industry heaved a sigh of relief: the movie was hardly a Communist tract. Rather, the tale of the tramp, played as always by Chaplin, and his paramour, played by Paulette Goddard, mixed slapstick comedy and social satire, as the duo struggled to overcome the vagaries of the machine age--strikes, riots, unemployment and the nerve wracking factory work--and get along in modern times.


1918 U.S. steamship Tuscania is torpedoed and sinks
On February 5, 1918, the Anchor line steamship Tuscania, traveling as part of a British convoy and transporting over 2,000 American soldiers bound for Europe, is torpedoed and sinks off the coast of Ireland by the German submarine U-77.


1941 Hitler to Mussolini: Fight harder!
On this day in 1941, Adolf Hitler scolds his Axis partner, Benito Mussolini, for his troops' retreat in the face of British advances in Libya, demanding that the Duce command his forces to resist.


1994 Medger Evers' killer is convicted
Byron de la Beckwith is convicted of the assassination of civil rights leader Medger Evers 31 years earlier, ending the lengthiest murder case in American history. Evers was gunned down in the driveway of his Jackson, Mississippi, home while his wife, Myrlie, and the couple's small children were inside waiting for their father.


1952 Don't Walk
The first "Don't Walk" sign was installed in New York City on this day. The city erected the signs in response to the growing awareness of pedestrian fatalities in the increasingly crowded Manhattan streets. Pedestrian fatalities are essentially an urban problem, so city dwellers, next time you see a Don't Walk sign, please don't run. In 1997, 5,307 pedestrians died as a result of automobile accidents. Fatal collisions between pedestrians and motor vehicles occur most often between six p.m. and nine p.m., a period that roughly coincides with rush hour. In 1998, in hopes of minimizing gridlock, New York City began strictly enforcing its jaywalking laws during rush hour. Pedestrians are subject to a $50 fine if they walk, or run, when faced with a Don't Walk sign.

1986 Survival is a harsh reality at times
Craig T. Budshuster of Dillinsmack Iowa, whose radio controlled model airplane crashed in the Alister Cornfist Memorial Park, eats his two children who were accompaning him. When questioned later by authorities and rescue workers, a teary eyed Craig Budshuster explains that he didn't think that he would make it back to his home, four blocks away, before supper time.


....and that about sums up my birthday today.
In all honesty, I never really cared much about today, partly because I never understood the importance people put on birthdays. For many years I felt that my birthday seem to always bring with it some sort of disaster, that is, crap always seemed to happen to me on this day, year after year. It was only a few years ago that I realized what was behind this....it was the idea that your birthday is a day that belongs to you, that everything should be perfect and you should be able to do what you wanted with it all working out. Yeah, great. You put that amount of importance and expectation on ANY day of the year and it'll just amplify the things that don't work out and such.

Now, I just celebrate my birthday with NO attached expectations. Today is a day that I will do absolutely nothing and enjoy every fucking second of it! I will kick back and relax, not letting any of the worries in...and rejoice in the fact that I have made it 35 years....six years longer than anyone in my family gave me while growing up! HA!!!!

Happy Birthday to me and Jennifer Jason Leigh! Now give me a dollar!