it's because we're all senile now

So today I got a wall post on Facebook from my cousin Bram. That's him in that picture over there. I didn't include one that has his gorgeous wife Juliet in it, but that's only because I like how the stripes in his shirt in this one sort of play off the background. Also, I'm too lazy to find one of the two of them right now.

Bram, I should point out, is the only one of my ten first cousins who is younger than I am -- and not by much. I'm only ahead by seven months, give or take some days, and we were the same year in school for most of our lives; so, for all intents and purposes, we're the same age. However, he does get the benefit of being the baby of the family.

Unlike Baby Ed, who is seven months older than I, and only has the nickname because there were two cousins named Edward: Teddy, and Baby Ed. Really.

Never mind.

OK, so I get this wall post, to the effect of, "Did you get a text message from me last night, wishing you happy birthday?" And my response was basically, "No, and, um, what?!?" 

You know, given that my birthday was twenty days ago, and also, well really ... um, what?!?

So Bram wrote back, and given that this is absolutely the greatest story I've heard in a long long time, if not ever, I had to share it with everyone verbatim.

"Ok ... long story ... The funny part about all of this is your birthday is down as 1/22 in my computer for some reason. Not right obviously, so happy way belated birthday! Did I forget to email you? Probably ... I suck. (Ed.'s note: Bram doesn't suck.)

On with the story... So yesterday, I had every intention of calling you to wish you a happy birthday since I thought it was your birthday (wrong). But I had a hellish day. I didn't have a free moment until 6 pm, at which point I was in a cab on my way to a work dinner which I knew would last several hours. So there was a text message exchange that went something like this:

Me - Hey cuz, happy birthday!
Not You - Who is this?
Me - Your favorite younger cousin.
Not You - You have the wrong number.

Now the part that I don't get is why the person (not you) couldn't have saved us all a lot of time by saying it wasn't his/her birthday right off the bat. Why did he/she ask who I was when he/she knew it wasn't his/her birthday, and it was obviously a wrong number. Weird. Unless it actually was his/her birthday, which would have been an amazing coincidence, all things considered."

I started laughing so hard it hurt. Gosh I love my cousins. Thanks, Bram! Best birthday wish this year by far.