frantic thursday

not to be confused with manic monday.. i'm on vacation today -- but not for vacating reasons -- i took mike to the airport this morning and am now frantically finishing off homework for tonight's class --

thanks to all for a wonderful birthday (both sparkling conversation, and gifts - what more could a girl ask for?) :)

here's the "twenty" poem as promised:

In Anticipation of My Twentieth Birthday

Twenty. Something smooth about the way it slides off my tongue.
Not like nineteen.
nineteen sounds almost already forgotten,
Was it just last year that nineteen seemed new?
Now it tastes stale in my mouth,
and i can’t help but scrunch my nose
as the last syllable squeaks out-
The same one that has cursed me
since I left twelve:

High school football games on Friday nights
cheering ecstatically as we watched the scoreboard reflect
the first homecoming win in ten years. After school
tennis games, into bed every school night by eleven.
Shopping with mom on the weekends for squeaky new
sneakers and that perfect dress for prom, coming home
after midnight curfew was practically sacrilegious-
Sunday night family dinners- ten problems due in math
tomorrow, an essay this week for English,
and we thought it was a lot. Those mornings when breakfast
at IHOP was more important than first hour
and pancakes had never tasted so good.
It all hangs on to nineteen, hovering
inside that last syllable.

But Twenty…
Twenty tastes like chai in a new apartment,
that first night we spent on the balcony-
four girls with their first taste of real freedom.
Twenty says I am in college- and have failed
more tests than I ever thought possible.
Twenty has never been afraid of the dark.
Twenty has never come in before curfew.
Twenty speaks of sophistication-
silk shirts paired with expensive skirts.
Twenty stands its ground
without seeming stubborn.
Ends one age and starts another,
dangling years like charms from a bracelet.