What do Mozart, Chocolate Cake, the inventor of the Toilet and Brutalism have in common?

Although I'm confident your answers to that question would be way more entertaining, the commonality is...

...we are all honored in some way on January 27th.

Yes, my birth date is shared with some amazingly accomplished people and some awesome national holidays, those being Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and National Chocolate Cake and Thomas Crapper Days. 

Sounds about right.

(Note to self: Do not celebrate these events simultaneously....Again.)

I'm looking forward to a week of fun that culminates in a very exciting event in NYC. Hooray for another year!

And a birthday gift from my husband who totally gets me.

Hashtag Blecccchh

Perhaps I am just perplexed, because as a non-religious person, I have never actually felt "blessed" about anything -- and that includes sneezing. Although I'm not entirely sure when it applies, in my limited purview I would guess it means something of a sacred nature. Yet according to some Twitter research, it is now a catchall that is applied to everything from humble brags (one blogger referred to these as "spiritual humble brags' - yes!) to bits of head scratching randomness. These have nothing to do with divine intervention and are simply easily explained occurrences that I'm guessing God had no hand in determining. And if He did...someone should gently remind Him of priorities. 

Sure, there are a number of tweets that reference God and love for God in the #blessed Twitter stream -- and I'm okay with that as it seems to be a relevant usage. And while I won't be hanging out in that Twitter conversation regularly, I totally get why they do.  

The others, however? Read for yourself...these are actual tweets from the past month or so on Twitter under #blessed (with my commentary in parentheses below):

I won an iPad Mini at my holiday party!!!!! #blessed

(Ed. I think the word you're looking for is "lucky.")

93 days of high school left #blessed

(Ed. Blessed? Or on schedule as dictated by the established school calendar?)

We all live in a submarine sandwich. #blessed

(Ed. This tweeter obviously lives in Colorado. #420)

Don't ever give up on your fitness goals. My hard work is finally starting to pay off. #blessed

(Ed. Blessed? Or seeing results based on long hours in the gym and determination?)

All these live tweets about the Golden Globes really make it feel like I'm there. #blessed

(Ed. Blessed because people are live tweeting an awards show? Perhaps the hashtag you're searching for is more along the lines of #needfriends.)

Feeling #blessed right now. Just googled my least favorite college professor and it looks like his life is a living nightmare.

(Ed. I'm no theologian, but can one feel blessed while simultaneously experiencing schadenfreude?)

And possibly my favorite:

Blessed about wearing flannel? When there are so many other things she could have written, like:

• My ex-husband was so involved with our kids when they were young. He used to play special bonding games with our youngest in the attic - just the two of them. #blessed

• I'm so fortunate my ex-husband gets along so well with our daughter, Soon-Yi. They really have a special relationship. #blessed

• Now that everyone knows my ex-husband married our daughter, I'm confident people will stop supporting his movies and Hollywood will shun him.#blessed

On second thought, perhaps she should stick with the blessed flannel.

I want this,
Brutalism