420, Dude

Happy birthday to Bernadine, Naomi and Karyn on what in my past life used to be one of the most entertaining days of the year.

And these birthday girls of whom I speak?

Naomi - a twentysomething elementary school teacher who wears feathers in her ears, listens to great music, and presently resides on the Upper West Side. Naomi also happens to be my sister-in-law - the youngest of the pack of Kaufmans and the least inhibited.

Bernadine - A West-African once called this woman "portable" as a means of describing her small stature. Bernadine and I "met" when I was in charge of the online community for Rollingstone.com. We've actually only seen each other a handful of times, most notably when she and her Radcliffe Rugby team came to stay - and play - at my apartment in San Francisco. I think they rivaled state school football players in their rowdiness. Bernadine's living out in the Bay Area now. Oakland, to be exact.

Kayrn - She and I go back the farthest of the lot. Kayrn was two years behind me at Northwestern. We ran the same arts magazine and worked at the same two companies in the years after graduation. Shortly after I moved to San Francisco, she dropped out of the rat race to lead boy scout-types on wilderness trips somewhere in the umm... wilderness of Arizona. Random Karyn/Isaac moment: grilling free burgers for total strangers one cold January evening as they exited the gay leather bar down the block from Karyn's Chicago apartment. And yes, AA, I know you guys dated. Duh.