4. birthday girl turns 22

birthday girl turns 22

1. eyes open. turn. eyes close. dog rattles her cage. birthday girl gets out of bed.
2. dog does 1 pee, 1 poo within the first block of walk. morning is warm, so dog and birthday girl do another block before breakfast.
3. kibble portioned, poured. birthday girl goes back to bed.
4. dog leapt on birthday girl on bed. ow. dog's nails need trimming.
5. birthday girl is in her underwear and nothing else in front of full-length mirror. research paper is due at midnight, but birthday girl wants to go back to bed. black mesh two-piece, a little sliver of skin; birthday girl dresses for success.
6. starbucks for free coffee. birthday girl pulls up research paper and reads the news in another tab for an hour. 
7. coffee makes birthday girl poop. 
8. birthday girl packs up and walks home. this is a private toilet kind of poop.
9. roommate wonders why bathroom smells bad. 
10. birthday girl flips on fan.
11. sigh. only half a page of text at half past noon. bake a big cookie in a pan to cope.
12. wonder if friends remembered?
13. drives to boyfriend's. 
14. boyfriend plays local indie band music; birthday girl hunches over her laptop. 
15. birthday girl is 3 pages in when time to leave for dinner function. hope it doesn't run long.
16. dinner function is delayed because attendees are watching final minutes of basketball game on lobby flatscreen. birthday girl is too short to see over tops of heads. no idea who's winning.
17. birthday girl pretends everyone is there to celebrate her birthday.
18. drops hints. some people catch on and ask about plans. research paper, birthday girl says. oh, they say.
19. game is over. someone won. conversely, someone lost.
20. finally, dinner. 
21. birthday girl turns in paper at 12:05 am. birthday girl now ex-birthday girl. go home. 
22. big cookie comes out of oven. roommate, seeing this, produces candles. other roommates emerge from rooms. boyfriend lights candles. surprise.