Happy Birthday to Me

At about 1:00 this morning I woke up and realized that I had been alive for 2 decades, and I was suddenly seized with amazement at how wonderful they had been. I don't know what else to say about it, but stood in my room for a long time being amazed. It's certainly not been through any merit of my own. I wanted to do something to express my gratitude, but as usual I was too groundless and unsure.
I am generally sort of concerned about the numerous advantages and blessings of my life, as I think it's true that to whom much is given much is expected, but I have no idea what exactly it is that I'm expected to do. But today I can't muster self-reproach or apprehension- it seems good to just be plain thankful for a while. Es justo y necesario.
The daylight portion of my birthday has so far been anticlimactic. I woke up early, as Dadda was leaving at 9:30 for Mexico and was up at some ungodly hour, and Jack was wandering around the house hacking up a lung. There was much closing of windows and moving of air conditioners and washing of kitchens and arrangement of the huge pile of Dadda's winter clothes and most of the sheets and blankets that were in a heap on my floor and such. Jack continued to evidence signs of drowning in his own mucus in the near future, and when we called Dill to ask if he could just start taking some antibiotics that were in the house we were recalled to the maternal abode. This was about 7:30. So we said goodbye to Dadda and packed up and went; then I spent the rest of the morning in a great flutter of vacuuming and dusting and baking cupcakes and doing laundry and slicing my finger open on a screen I was trying to put in the window and putting sheets on bed and such, to prepare for the graduation party that the poor graduate will be too sick to enjoy- he and Mama spent the morning at the Immediate Care clinic, where they said he had bronchitis and gave him various unpronouncable treatments. The rest of the day has continued in the same cleaning-frenzied vein. I'm currently awaiting permission to do the rest of the deck-cleaning work so that I can take a shower when I'm done. I'm still wearing my clothes from yesterday.

P.S. I cannot neglect to mention that I won TWO contests against my young brother yesterday- cribbage by a landslide and spit in an epic duel of long duration.