For the Birthday Boy

Today is Alvin Cutler Van Orden's birthday. I'd intended (and still intend) to send him a package with three gifts. Since I got sick last week, the package is yet waiting to be assembled. In lieu of said package, I have assembled a simple cipher detailing the promised presents. I've embedded it in the absurdly forced paragraph below.

"Who enjoys bingo, war, uno, obsessive uno, DJs, and jedi-ing puzzles of risks? Alvin! Going jedi pleases, and so jump on your not-actual gift (if you can open it). Best, PBJ."

Sorry for the ridiculousness, but it seriously took me forever to come up with something into which I could embed the cipher. I also checked my journal for what I thought of Alvin back in the day. Here's what I had to say:

"Alvin is quiet, humble, intelligent, active spiritual and a great example...He's a really great guy and I've learned a lot about stretching my limits and magnifying my calling from his challenges to do push-ups, read scriptures, sing hymns, etc. He's a wonderful roommate."

Happy birthday, Alvin. Hopefully you crack the code before the present itself arrives.



P.S.- Here are a few cipher parameters that will simplify the decoding process: I/IV/I.

Happy Birthday, Alvin

Happy Birthday, Alvin.

A few of my favorite memories of Alvin:

- The first time I met him, and the shock (and dismay) I felt when I realized that even though he was from Illinois he wasn't a Cubs fan
- Action to the Nth (that was his anticipated level of birthday action, 1995, thanks to the virtues of the pimp shirt)
- That painful mask of blisters his face became after he skiied all day in the bright sun with no sunscreen on. Ouch!
- The time he skunked me at killer UNO and I had to do 105 push-ups
- Alvin the monk, chanting and cavorting to "Give Said the Little Stream"
- Organizing Shakespeare-fest, 1999, including practicing and performing our comedic dialogue from Othello
- Struting his stuff as Mr. BYU 169th ward (or whatever our University Park ward was). Particularly, tossing the rose he had clasped in his teeth to the judges. I think I've got a video somewhere
- The huge hug he gave me in Penn station when we met up in NYC during his road trip with his sister Reta
- Standing on a bridge over the Charles River on a warm summer evening, 2002, and talking about just about everything. That was after the inebriate with an inferiority complex accosted us with a lewd joke.
- Playing lightning with him after his wedding reception, while my 4-month-old daughter gibbered happily in his new wife's arms

For these, and many others, I thank you Alvin. May your birthday be happy, and may you know that the good you do, the good you are, lives with me always.