October 2002

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I spent my birthday at school, doing homework, in the cafeteria.

Still, it was one of the best birthdays I ever had. Why? Because somebody bought me a birthday balloon. You know, one of those helium filled shiny red balloons with a Mickey Mouse on it. The Mickey Mouse was singing and dancing, wearing one of those pointy poco-dot cartoonish birthday hats, and he was smiling and laughing and having a jolly good time. A table of friends treated me to pizza, and sang me the good old birthday song. When I went home, I tied the balloon to my bag, and almost everyone who passed by gave me the good old birthday greeting. And oh, I finished my homework. What more could I have asked for?

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And I'll tell you a bit about one of the boys attending my youth group. He is just filled with such a joyful energy that you can't help but smile when you see him. At least, I can't help but smile. He'd call me Tony the Tiger, or sometimes, just Tony, or Tiger, which is just fine with me. And he'd tell me marvelous things. He'd say,

"I have a friend whose hair grows from this end of the church to the other end."

"Oh really?" I'd be intrigued, "from this end to that end?"

"Yup, just a bit longer, in fact."

"Cool, can you bring your friend some time?"

"Well, it's actually a friend's friend... and unfortunately," He tried to jerk a tear, "she has already passed away."

"Uh huh, I thought so."

Errrgh. Pause. Then a little light bulb bloomed upon him.

"...Huh, gotcha! She's actually still alive you know."

"Well, so will you bring her some time?"

"Well actually, she's my friend's friend's friend... In fact, I don't know her very well...So umm, I guess if you really want, I can ask my friend to ask his friend to ask her..."

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And another time, he was telling me about another one of his friend's friends.

"He eats snakes." He would tell me, fully animated, "In fact, he only eats snakes."

"Oh really? Is he a snake?"

"Not really."

"And how tall is he?"

"Oh, six-foot-three."

"And how much does he weigh?"

"Oh, sixty-pounds."

"Wow, then he must be a snake!"

"Actually, I am not so sure, because you see, he is a friend of a friend."

"Can you bring him to youth group some time?"

"Actually, if I heard correctly, he passed away yesterday..."

"Him too?"

"Well actually, I've got some good news. He came back to life today, it must have been a miracle! But you see, he will need lots of rest because he has just come back to life."