Thread by @jpaulreed, Ok, so this is bit of a long story, but I invite [...]

Ok, so this is bit of a long story, but I invite you to join me for it.

I promise there's a payoff at the end.

THREAD

I grew up in Colorado. And as any Coloradan will tell you, the weather is... unpredictable. ("If you don't like it, just wait 20 minutes!")

For my 6th birthday, we were going to have a party at ShowBiz Pizza Place. (If you're not familiar, @ChuckECheese is basically ShowBiz 2.0)

It was The Big Thing™ at the time & I was soooo excited. I couldn't stop talking about it for weeks beforehand.

So, along comes my birthday...and a sneak-attack snow blizzard hits the Colorado Front Range. Chilling temps, tons of snow; over 10 inches in one day in Denver alone!

It was a mess.

My mom knew there was no way that Show Biz Pizza party was happening; so before picking me up from daycare, she races to the store, buys a bunch of small toys, and wraps them in the backseat of the car.

And then... she had to tell me...

That—as anyone who has had to explain a change-of-plans to a 6 year old knows—went... not-so-great.

"But, but, BUT," she explained: "we're still going to celebrate! At home!"

I was unconvinced.

She then produces a bag of wrapped gifts and explained the rules: every hour, for the rest of the evening, I could pick one gift from the bag, and open it.

The change was initially difficult and disappointing.

But after the first couple of presents (and some birthday macaroni and cheese!), it turned out to be a lot of fun.

And to this day, it ranks among most memorable birthdays, for both my me and my mom.

When I went back to school the next week, the teacher asked me "How's it feel to be 6?"

I explained to her that I did not get to go to Show Biz Pizza Place.

I did not get to eat pizza.

And I did not get to play skee-ball.

And because of this, I was not yet 6.

I gently, but firmly explained: "When, and only when, these things occur, will I then legally be 6 years old."

(Here is a picture of me doing so:

So why am I thinking about this right now?

Well, tomorrow is my birthday. In fact, it's my 40th.

In the last couple of years, I've been invited to some pretty epic decade-marking birthdays (thanks again @terraplanner & @mrpengy), so I was looking forward to throwing one.

Obviously, with everything going on right now, that's not happening, which... it's a bummer I won't be following suit.

Add to that: because of social distancing, I'll be spending the entire day, in my apartment, by myself.

(Like most of us.)

But, it's a world-wide pandemic, and on the list of things people are going through, this is definitely like a... 0th world problem.

That said, given the situation, it got me thinking: "this is _kinda_ like my 6th birthday, right?"

So here's what I'm doing for it instead:

Reply to this thread with a charity in one of the following categories:

- Covid-19
- LGBTQ+
- Environment / Animals
- Wildcard (anything not covered by the above)

You can pick up to 3.

(Include which bucket your suggestions go in!)

A 9 am tomorrow, I'll take all the suggestions and throw them in a hat.

I'll pick one out to donate to at noon, 2 pm, 4 pm, and 6 pm.

(Disclaimer: I reserve the right to not put certain charities in the hat; like, I'm not donating to the NR/\\...)

Let's get creative! A lot of smaller non-profits could really use the help right now.

(I also reserve the right to claim I am 39 until I have have that party... at ShowBiz Pizza Place...)

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