The first present is going to be a mix tape.  I just know that it should.  I already have the songs picked and a theme.  It’s called “One Winter.”  But I’ve decided not to hand-color the cover…The second side is the one that I like the most.  It has winter kind of songs.  Here they are:

Asleep by the Smiths

Vapour Trail by Ride

Scarborough Fair by Simon & Garfunkel

A Whiter Shade of Pale  by Procol Harum

Time of No Reply by Nick Drake

Dear Prudence by the Beatles

Gypsy by Suzanne Vega

Nights in White Satin by the Moody Blues

Daydream by Smashing Pumpkins

Dusk by Genesis (before Phil Collins was even in the band!)

MLK by U2

Blackbird by the Beatles

Landslide by Fleetwood Mac

And finally…

Asleep by the Smiths (again!)

And now, a break from our regularly scheduled literary analysis to talk about this lovely blogger:

Last Tuesday, I celebrated my 20th birthday.  Celebrated is slightly an understatement, I suppose, since I went to three classes and then sat in my dorm room and did homework.  Alas, the problems of being a conscious student in University.  I did, however, receive probably the most heartfelt birthday present of my entire life.  Everyone here knows about my infatuation with The Perks of Being a Wallflower (and if you don’t, you can read why it’s my favorite book here).  But my dear friend from High School, Earl, and I have a very lovely relationship reminiscent of Sam and Charlie.  In fact, I have started calling him Charlie, and he sometimes refers to me as Sam.

Anyway, at about noon on October 18th, I got an email from my school’s mail center telling me that I had a package.  I was really surprised, because I generally don’t even get mail very often, let alone packages.  So I ran over to the center before I had to leave for my 1:40 class, and picked it up.  The “package” was a pink envelope with a birthday card and CD inside.  As you probably already guessed, it was from my Charlie, and the CD was One Winter.  Not only was it the mix CD, but it had the hand written words of the quote above on the front of the CD cover.  I started crying in the middle of the Mail Center’s lobby.  I could not have picked myself a better birthday present.

Then, to make things even better, when I returned from all of my classes at the the end of the day, so around 4:30, there was a single purple rose waiting for me from my Charlie.

My 20th birthday was not extravagant.  In fact, it was normal in almost every sense of the word.  But it was also one of the best days that I have ever had, simply because someone knows me so well to make the perfect birthday present- I don’t need clothes or money or silly things that I won’t ever use.  Simple things, like references to my favorite novels, have and always will be enough.  I’m just really lucky to have found my Charlie.