madrobins | Balloon Morning

For a week now Avocado has been angling for a rapping balloon: a mylar balloon with a sound chip that, when poked, raps about how it's your birthday and so on. Tomorrow is A's 13th birthday (but she won't be in school and anyway it's her buddy Gabe's bar mitzvah and all the fuss will be about him) and on your birthday you are suffered to bring a balloon to school so that everyone will know that it's your birthday and make a fuss. Throughout the day your friends, already in on the birthday event--give you more balloons, so that by day's end you're carrying a veritable bouquet of long-stemmed balloons. I think this is kind of adorable--but of course the kid didn't explain all this to me until 11pm last night.

I'm a sucker. At 7:15 this morning I drove off to Safeway. Did not get her the rapping balloon (at $15? No way) but got her a nice big happy birthday balloon so she can advertise her imminent maturity.