It's Three's Birthday!! :D

So Three is one of those people that doesn't like to celebrate his birthday. To be fair, neither do I, but that's because of this curse that I believe I have*, and anyway, the point is that today is Three's birthday. I gave him his birthday present about a month ago**, two volumes of The Tick, both of which he counts as prized possessions.

Yep, and I got a discount, too!

A lot of Three's life has been exceptionally sad, especially when it comes to his birthday. In a particularly Sixteen Candles-esque situation, his parents completely forgot the date of his birth and went about the day like it was no different from any other. 1) There was no wedding going on. 2) He was in the single digits. That's enough to give anyone the idea that they just don't matter, and it took over thirty years for him to fully come to the realization that he is worth so much more than that.

Several weeks ago, I was having a conversation with myself, trying to figure out how to talk to a friend of mine about the relationship problems he was having (in that his girlfriend doesn't really love him and only stays for the purpose of him buying her shit). I imagined that I'd ask him if he could explain why he loved her, knowing that he would have a hard time saying anything but, "Well, she was the girl I wanted when I was younger and now I have her. Oh, and she cooks sometimes, although I am actually an accomplished chef myself." So then I started listing all of the reasons that I love Three, and I ended up tearing up as I whispered them to myself (Three was asleep in the next room and I didn't want to wake him).

• He would be late on rent if it meant that someone didn't go hungry.
• He absolutely loves children and babies. 
• He's already somewhat technologically crotchety and has only recently decided that he wants to learn how to do computer-ish stuff.
• He loves me for who I am and doesn't try to change me at all.
• He enjoys cooking for two reasons: he's very artistically satisfied by pairing flavors together and he likes to serve others. 
• He can go from serious, to goofy, to sappy, to intellectual, to downright playful, and then right back to serious in a matter of seconds. And it all ties together seamlessly.
• He's adorably bad at cleaning. The guy tried to clean up dog vomit with Febreeze for God's sake, and his idea of cleaning the kitchen after cooking is to run a wet rag over everything and let it air dry.
• He's one of the most spiritual people I know. 
• When he tries to do an accent, it always ends up one of two things: a very bad Mexican accent or very bad Russian, even when he's trying to do Scottish. Although he does a Southern accent quite well, but that doesn't count because he's from there.
• He gets such a delight out of watching depressing movies because he can always see a happy side to any situation. 
• He has more hair products than I do and simply has to change into a nice pair of jeans before going to the grocery store. 
• He gets as stupidly excited about tattoos as I do.
• He has silver hairs growing in his thick, curly dark brown mane (what? I've been reading romance novels; cut me some slack), and they are the sexiest thing ever. He was self-conscious about them for a while but is now examining them in the mirror while beaming with pride. "I've earned these."
• He can write a song, lyrics and music alike, in the span of a few minutes, and it's actually good. 
• He hates getting presents but wants to shower everyone else with them.
• He also doesn't like buying things - that aren't necessities - for himself. 
• He engages me intellectually. 
• He reads people so well but refuses to use that to his advantage. 
• He believes in me in a way that no one else ever has. 
• All he really wants is to be loved unconditionally. Nothing more, nothing less.

Shit, I'm tearing up now. I'm one of the luckiest humans in the world. So now, I'm going to spend the day with my favorite person ever and make sure that he knows every single one of these. To be honest, I'll probably come up with more.

Happy Birthday, Three!

* It's something that I academically know as being ridiculous, but in my heart of hearts, I have such a hard time calling attention to my birthday. I wanted to have a party last year, but that kind of didn't happen, and I was secretly glad that it happened that way, even if it did mean that I wasn't going to get a dinosaur cake.
** I have a thing, in which I can't hold onto presents if I buy or make them in advance.