My 28th birthday was a strange one. I woke up at 3:30 in the morning or so and was outside by 4AM trotting a mile with a bag full of clothes over my shoulders. Birthdays are supposed to be spent lying in bed having someone bring you pancakes. This past year though, my birthday was spent traveling to visit Jenny.

Last October I turned 28 and spent my birthday almost entirely on an airplane. Because of the time differences I experienced I’m not sure if my birthday actually ever ended.

When I got to Vancouver it was like only one hour or so had passed even though I was on the plane for far more. At some point when I was flying over the Pacific Ocean (typing that makes me feel like I have some wasted superpower) we crossed into the next day and my birthday was officially over. It was probably at some point when I was stuffing my face with airline food or pondering if it would have been a wiser idea to just pay for two airline tickets so I didn’t have someone sitting next to me.

The person who sat next to me was a middle-aged Indian man and one of only a handful of people on the plane not of Filipino descent. Oddly, I actually saw him at the airport on my way back a week later flying back on the same flight as me. He was a Vancouver native and other than taking my pen to fill out his customs form without asking we didn’t really talk during the 20 hours we sat next to each other. Our relationship became strained when during lunch he opened up his chocolate mousse pudding, didn’t like the way it looked, and then didn’t offer me any of it. I’ll never forgive him for that.

I left early from my home on a Friday morning and arrived in the Philippines minutes after midnight on what was technically Sunday. So not only did I spend most of my birthday on an airplane, I also spent all of a Saturday there too.

Thankfully, I had Jenny to greet me at the airport.

As far as birthdays go, I’m at the age where they don’t really matter. In 2014 my birthday was pretty overlooked by most, possibly because I’m viewed as a musical genius and the world didn’t except I was probably going to die within the next 365 days. Jenny and I did share a burger though when I got home from work. My birthday in 2015 was one of the first in a really long time that I actually did anything significant. Since I’m not sure when it actually came to its conclusion, I’m just going to assume today is still my special day. So buy me something and be really nice to me. I’ll take some pancakes in bed tomorrow morning, please.