James Has a Burfday

James is 23 now. The good thing about this is 23 is a year that comes with a song.

I like birthdays that come with songs. Every year should have its own song. There's a whole flood for sixteen (Sixteen Candles, Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen, Sixteen going on Seventeen (Sound of Music). Then there's only one I can think of for seventeen, "The Heat is on in Saigon" from Miss Saigon ("I'm seventeen and I'm new here today, the village I come from seems so far away..."). And that's pretty much it. Guess nobody feels like it's worth singing about once you've reached the age of majority.

Thankfully, my fabulous little brother solved this problem for me by writing a song for my 22nd.

And lucky for James, 23 comes with a song too! It's no Billy Jones, but it is Coolio! Gangsta's Paradise!

In case you forgot (how could you forget?!), or you are more than a decade older than me and never knew in the first place, it goes: "I'm 23 now, but will I live to see 24? The way things are going I don't know..."

James gets to sing it now. And I guarantee in six months I too will be found belting, "You better watch how you talkin, and where you walkin Or you and your homies might be lined in chalk..."

23: So much to look forward to.

N*E Wayz ... To celebrate we went to eat hot pot with James' uncle and grandma on Saturday.

From James is 23 now

Then we had cake at Nai Nai's.

After that we went bowling. I'm a supremely bad bowler. So is James, but by some birthday luck he managed to rack up 100 points by the fifth frame.

This anomalous fortune endowed James with the foolish notion he could coach me out of an unbroken streak of gutter balls.

"You just have to bring your arm straight back!"

"I'm not going to change for you or anyone!"

By the eighth frame I was reduced to whimpering: Please, don't make me go back out there ...

I finished with a 36. And yes, I bowled every frame.

After bowling we returned home for James' second cake of the day.

I was pretty proud of myself for ordering the cake ahead of time over the phone. The conversation (translated in its entirety from Chinese) went something like this:

Do you speak English?

No sorry...

Okay. I want a chocolate cake ... Tomorrow.

ChineseChineseChinese

Tomorrow. I want a chocolate cake tomorrow. Chocolate cake tomorrow.

ChineseChineseChinese

I'm so sorry. I don't understand.

No, no! I'm so sorry! ... ummm- oh! What is your last name?

My last name is Jones.

ChineseChineseChinese

Tomorrow. Give me a chocolate cake tomorrow.

ChineseChineseChinese

How much will it cost?

$520NT

Ok. Thank you. Umm..Bye. Chocolate Cake Tomorrow. See you tomorrow. Chocolate cake. Ok?

ChineseChineseChinese...okay?

Okay. Tomorrow. Thank you. Bye.

Saturday night James tried to convince me it was his birthday Sunday too because in Taiwan we're 16 hours ahead of the U.S., and he was born in the States. So I snappily replied that the international dateline was irrelevant: a guy only gets 24 hours of birthday.

James took the news like a champ. And overall, I think we had a successful celebration.