March 17, 2002 | 10:57 PM

Sometimes several days come attached like a perfect string of pearls. And you're happy because everything makes sense. You're with people you love late at night in your grubby Allston ghetto kitchen, singing along to dirt hippy music and giggling compulsively because you haven't smoked pot since the Clinton administration.

You go to the bathroom and look in the mirror. And you maybe sort of see what it is those people in the kitchen love about you. And maybe after 25 years you are finally learning to not take everything so seriously. To just aknowledge and enjoy all of the magic around you. Maybe you are learning to relax and appreciate each moment, to allow love in and out without being so afraid. Maybe you are slowly but surely dismantleing your defenses.

Security isn't anything more than superstition. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all.

--Hellen Keller

I wanted to thank everyone for the birthday messages. It meant a lot to me.

I still have one more day off tomorrow. Perhaps there will be a SAGA update, but there might not be one 'til Tuesday.

As Conrad Birdie said,

Life's a ball, if only you know it.

And it's all just waiting for you.

You're alive, so come on and show it.

There's such a lot of living to do.

Which They Might Be Giants album are you?