Happy Birthday to Me!

Yup, it's my birthday. I am now officially O-L-D. I dare you to try to guess how old. I always make my students guess. They give the funniest answers (ranging from 21 to 56). It is in that range, BTW. In fact, I'm giving away a present to one lucky person who can guess correctly. What? you ask. Since I am a lover of all things young adult, I have a set of Richelle Mead's Vampire Academy books. Well, at least the three that are out. Shadow Kiss was just released November 13. I love them. And her. She has a fun blog here.












Isn't that guy on the cover of Frostbite yummy? Yes, yes he is. But I digress. The age contest. Here are some hints. Take a stab...if you dare. For those cheaters out there, I've removed my age from all my social networking sites as well as my forums. Ha! No cheating... Relatives, at least try to pretend like it's a guess, 'kay?

1. I have a ten-year-old son. He's in fifth grade. He's OLD too. Makes me feel older than I am. I also have a daughter who will be four next week.

2. I've been teaching elementary school for nine years. That makes me a college graduate in the class of 2000. How cool is that? I was stoked. Back when I was young enough to get stoked about things.

3. I have coached youth soccer. I have no idea how this will help you determine my age, but it's a cool fact. Did I like it? Um, no. I did not. Maybe because I was TOO OLD. (ha ha!)

4. I don't watch movies that were made before I was born. This list includes The Wizard of Oz, Jaws, Carrie, The Godfather, and Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Well, I do watch Willy Wonka, those oompas are just too cute. This hint should be a dead giveaway. You ought to at least be able to get close with this one.

5. I do watch and enjoy Pete's Dragon. I love the noises that thing makes. And he's just so durn cute. Total giveaway. Come on people!

6. I love Dreyer's lemonade bars and Hershey's caramel chocolate kisses. Just throwin' that out there for those of you scrounging for a last-minute gift. I put up a sign at school on December 1. It says: 11 shopping days until Mrs. Johnson's birthday. I change it as the days count down. I get a lot of bubble gum. And all things grape. And hugs.

7. I have entered the realm of middle age. Dude...the *realm* of middle age. That sounds like a cool alternate universe I could somehow incorporate into a novel...Or a land, like middle earth. "She hovered behind an aspen on the outskirts of Middle Age, still not quite sure if she should leave her youth behind." Now that's a good first line.

8. My birthday is exactly 14 days before Christmas. That means that because it's Thursday today, Christmas will also be on a Thursday. When my b-day is on a Sunday, so is Christmas. I love this. I don't know why, it just makes me feel specialer than the average person. Unless you were born on December 11 too...then we're like twins. Dude! How cool would that be?

I know the last three aren't hints about my age, but I was in the list-zone. It's hard to break outta that, sorry. Guess my age correctly and I'll do one of those random-number generator thingies to choose the winner. Just post a comment to this post with your guess. That's it. Guesses must be submitted by Friday, Dec. 12 at 12 midnight MST. That's 2 AM Eastern, and 11 PM Pacific. I'll post the winner as soon as I figure out how to do the random-number-generator-thing. Maybe Saturday? And you'll get the VA books! Oh, and if you said "Happy Birthday" in the comment that would like, totally make my day. (Gotta get my junior high persona out every once in a while. See post here for a full 'splanation. Yes, that's a word.)

Oh, my family gave me an iPod shuffle for my birthday! It's hot pink. And I'm buying myself a book, of course. I hear Scott Westerfeld has a new one out...