Keppet's birthday

Keppet's alarm went off at 7:15am that day. She leapt out of the queen-sized bed and slammed the fan heater on full-blast. It seems that Californians don't believe in central heating or indeed heating that cannot be turned to cooling at the flick of a switch. So then she retreated under the covers until the room grew warm enough to come out. She then went through the cards that her family had passed onto her over the Christmas period. One of her aunties had been very generous with the cash. One had not. So it is. Keppet counted herself lucky to get a card at all. One nanna sent a nice birthday card which was a surprise since the card that she had sent her son on his birthday just before Christmas was a bereavement card and Keppet half expected something that said Get Well Soon or On Your Wedding Day. The other nanna spelt Keppet's name wrong. The card from the parents deserved a longful sigh as it had Angel on the front and the words "I'm not what you think". That card is not going to be put aside any time soon by the love-struck Keppet.

Keppet dressed herself in her favourite tie-die top and knee-high stripey socks of the no-toe variety. There were also other items in this dressing process including underwear and jeans so don't get any ideas, reader. She then went to breakfast where she treated herself to a muffin instead of her usual bagel.

The talks that day started at 8:30am. Keppet gritted her teeth and tried not to day-dream about Angel. At the coffee break she made her escape along with her supervisor and three other work-mates. They went on a tour of the site. Keppet saw the klystron gallery that stretched for two miles above the linear accelerator and the A-line end station where she would one day be running experiements. After being dazzled by hardware, the group went to lunch at a local sandwich place that Keppet likens to a greasy spoon.

As she queued up the lady taking the orders cried out "happy birthday". Keppet turned around thinking that maybe a local had stepped through the door behind her that was lucky enough to share the same birthday. There was no one there and so Keppet realised the greeting was for her. It turned out that the lady behind the counter had been at the Accelerator Centre the evening before serving the drinks and had remembered Keppet and her assertion that she was over 21 and would in fact be celebrating her 23rd on the morrow. Keppet's work-mates took up the cry and also wished her a happy birthday. The man on the till gave Keppet a bun as a gift. Keppet regrets not having enough room for the bun (it later got added to the bin in her hotel room).

The afternoon passed with more talks. Come 6:30pm everyone was herded onto a bus and taken to a Chinese restaurant. Keppet encouraged people to buy her glasses of wine during the meal and a couple of people were generous enough to do so. The main reason for this of course was that Keppet didn't have any id with her and couldn't get served at the bar. At 9pm they returned to the guest house and Keppet parted from her fellows as they went out to get drunk in the nearest town claiming that she felt run-down from her cold (which was true to some extent). This drunken trip lasted until 5:30am and involved the police, a sexologist and a pick-up truck so Keppet turned out to be very glad she had declined to join them.

The day had passed relatively untouched by the fact that it was her birthday which was perhaps a good thing as Keppet's previous birthdays have been nothing to brag about or indeed have been painful to remember. However it was about to become very special. Keppet entered her room and sitting on the end of the bed was a large parcel. Keppet had never seen such a large parcel addressed to her before. It was huge. e4e could have fit within it quite easily and there may have been room for Day as well. Keppet tore into it with her pair of scissors and dove into the box which was full of styrofoam peanuts.

And she may still be in there to this day...