To my daughter, to my wonderful friend, on your birthday, I am reminded of my appreciation for you, of my respect for you, of my pride in you, of your wisdom beyond your years, of your beautifully independent and individual spirit, and of your treasured wit and laughter;  I am remembering the precision of my prophetic conclusion at the time of your birth, that you would grow to be of the finest among the human variety, such as you have;  I am mindful that there can be no other on earth than you, with whom I could ever find satisfaction in parallel conversations, and be rewarded by such unrelated simultaneous subject matters of discussion;  and I recall with utter clarity your loathing and disdain for the annoyingly long sentence, that it behooves me in honoring that, that I shall close, in the interest of brevity, save further redundant comma delineations, with these simple utterances: I love you, and happy birthday.  ~dad