I was born once

I could swear the sky is made of water tonight. It looks smaller and closer than usual, clear and crystalline. The moon floats in the midst of a translucent white glow. I stared stupidly at it as I walked down the sidewalk to the dorm until a girl walking past me burped very loudly.

MY BIRTHDAY WAS THE BOMB, mostly. I wrote my family about it, and I will paste the email here because I don't want to describe it all over again.

My birthday started with the words, "It's seven o'clock, Amanda. Happy birthday!"

So I bolted out of bed. I mean, I had an eight o'clock class with an exam. I got ready, cursed my three enormous zits -- I'm not joking about this, they're gargantuan -- stepped out the door precisely as the clock was preparing to snap into another hour, and shuffled down the stairs.

At the end of the stairway is a great metal door rigged with an alarm system. It went off when I opened it. The sound gave me a sick sort of feeling in my stomach, but dumb stuff happens all the time here, you know. It was a fluke.

The lobby was uncharacteristically dark and grim-looking. In fact, so was everything else. Hoofing it across the "tear drop" driveway toward the campus center, I reasoned all this strange gloominess was a result of the weather. We've had rain since yesterday.

I pushed through the door. One of the maintenance staff was there, vacuuming in front of the doorway to Auditorium East... weird. With a sheepish glance at her I hopped over the cords and into AE.

Completely empty.

There's not much you can do with an empty classroom, so I turned around slowly.

"Ma'am?"

She switched the vacuum off and looked at me, slightly petrified, as always. I felt bad.

"Excuse me. What time is it?"

"It -- maybe six..."

"Seven?" I bit my lip.

"...yes, six thirty, maybe, mmm. Six or seven..."

I was interfering with her cleaning, obviously. "Okay. Thank you."

Courtney, meanwhile, was gathered securely into room 309 on the third floor, wrapped in absolute silence beneath cotton sheets, amid plushy animals and far more pillows than she ever deserved. I bet the Yanni cd even spontaneously began to spin out its melodies at that point.

I checked every pocket for my card on the way back. It wasn't in every pocket, or in any pocket, because it was in the room with CJ, tucked into the wall beneath my dangling keys. The alarm in the lobby was still screaming when I returned, but it hadn't drawn any attention at all. The place was just as deserted as when I'd left it. Unable to get back up without my swipe card, I sat down and waited.

Forty minutes later a girl came down. She had a quizzical look, probably produced by the alarm, but was on her way to breakfast or work and barely noticed me. My aerobics here would have impressed nearly anyone other than the soccer players. As much as a 160-pound girl can, I sprinted through the atmosphere and struck my palm into the too-narrow space between the door and the doorframe. I almost didn't make it.

I tell you this because I don't want to let the memory slip into oblivion altogether. Courtney didn't do it on purpose. Her clock really was bumped an hour forward. Neither of us has any idea why that is. But it's funny.

What else? Oh, I neglected to note my birthday presents so far.
1. Money from Grandma & Poppy Webb
2. Jolly Rancher suckers
3. Pepsi
4. A teddy bear (his name still under debate)
5. Money from Cindy & Jeff
6. Caedmon's Call: In the Company of Angels II, or The World Will Sing
7. A green mug
8. A little silver ring with a pink heart in it
9. Brownies

Some of the best lyrics from the cd so far: "Let us sing of our Redeemer and of his love that made us free. We know this gift is ours forever, a fellowship so deep."