MY recent 28th birthday was a real downer; I wasn't in the right mood to begin with and felt even worse after my phone mysteriously vanished. I personally searched the prime suspect's pockets but it appears that he may have hidden it somewhere the sun doesn't shine very often. Fine. He can keep it then.  It's not much fun being born on December 30 because it comes shortly after Christmas and just before the New Year. People just don't seem to be in the right frame of mind because they're either still too busy unwrapping Christmas presents or preparing for the biggest party of the year the next night.

Hardly anyone remembers Tariq's birthday and who can blame them? Even I don't feel like celebrating? Even my star sign, the Capricorn, symbolized by a goat of all things, is seriously downbeat. Baaaa. I wish I was a Scorpio or a Sagittarius. I've never looked up the personalities that go along with them, but the pictures are much prettier. Looking at the bright side though? at least I'm not a Cancer.  I think that birthdays stop being happy occasions when you reach the age of 25 because you're officially in your mid-20s and the big three zero seems that much closer. There is apparently even a name for what I'm feeling; it's called a pre-midlife crisis. Still, I suppose I'm better off than people born on Christmas or New Year's Eve, whose parties are literally secondary to the main event.

Even more humiliating, perhaps, is if you make your debut on New Year's Day? especially if your baby pictures are plastered all over the papers. You get your five minutes of fame during your first 24 hours on the planet and then it all goes downhill from there? Of course, your mother will save the clippings and you'll never hear the end of it. The poor little kiddies look so happy in the photos? they don't know. It can't be easy having a Halloween birthday, but I imagine it's even worse if it falls on April Fool's Day, especially if you have a personality to match. I'd rather be born on a leap year and celebrate once every four years. You'd have to put up with would-be comedians cracking jokes about you being Mother Nature's prank. And of course, everyone would wish you a 'wonder fool' birthday. Ha ha, funny guy. And I don't even want to think about the gifts you might receive. Hey, I feel much better now! Save your sympathy for someone who needs it! Maybe December 30 isn't so bad after all!.

tariqk1976@hotmail.com 

tkhonji@yahoo.com

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