Today is my 28th birthday. HOORAY! I love birthdays. As my grandfather always said, it's much better than the alternative.
Ben and I were talking about birthday presents. I ordered an Ipod touch on behalf of my parents, which made them happy, and made me happy too. Ben said he normally just asked for money and put it in the bank. I laughed, and thought, I'd rather light one dollar bills on fire and enjoy watching them burn (obviously this is probably an extremely dramatic statement of the truth, as I don't think I would actually enjoy watching money burn, but I do think birthday money should be used for something fun) than put my birthday money in the bank. I also told Ben that he is a much more fiscally responsible person than I am.
We had family birthday dinner last night, and my dad gave me 50 $2 bills. Daddy likes to give us $2 bills. A few years ago, Daddy gave me and Travers 100 $2 bills for Christmas. I asked Travers what he was going to do with his 100 $2 bills. He said he was going to go to the bank and get $2 100 dollar bills. Which I thought was something of a responsible, novel idea. Needless to say, that is not what I did with my $2 bills.
I gave mine away. I gave one to a crack head in New York (how do I know he was a crack head? he had a crack pipe in his hand), I paid for taxis with them, I left them as tips, and I handed them out to friends. Like they weren't real money. Which for some reason I have a hard time remembering. I had a lot of fun giving away my $2 bills. Almost like lighting them on fire. Yesterday Libby told me that Bryan still has the $2 bill I gave him a couple years ago(I said – LIKE THE CRACK HEAD! HAHA – BRYAN"S A CRACKHEAD! Maybe that's not as funny as it seemed at the time).
Is this the ultimate example of my inability to realize the value of a dollar? I'm really fairly responsible when it comes to money in general (and the more I learn of the fiscal practices of america in the past decade, the more responsible I feel). But is there something wrong with me that would prefer to give my $2 bills away than buy something with them or save them?
So yeah, yesterday I had 50 $2 bills. I've given eight away so far. I mean, seriously, I can't help it. People like them! It's like having $2 prizes to give to people I like (and random drug dealers)! And they were a present. He could have given me $100 worth of beer – and I could have handed the beers out to friends and bums. Like a party! But this a $2 bill party. He could have had coozies made for my birthday, and I could have given those away. But instead he gave me $2 bills. and I want to share them.
I just need to remember to not take them to the bar with me tonight. Libby and Bryan are in town and we are going to ATHENS very shortly. I'm so excited! Yippee! Call me if you are going to be in town! GO DAWGS!
the thin line between optimism and delusion... 
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