ASHTABULA — Suzy Kist has looked forward to today ever since she was old enough to recognize that she would turn 39 on this unusual date: 12-12-12.

“I thought ‘That’s going to be so neat. And I’m going to be so old,’” said Kist, a Saybrook Township resident.

Like most 39-year-olds, Kist plans to work, but she also plans to have a celebration with her family that evening; after all, the date is a sequence that won’t roll around for another 100 years.

The repetitious date brings to a close a string of them that began on Jan.1, 2001. Couples anxious to wed on a date that would be easy to remember planned weddings around the repititious dates, particularly 7-7-7, which fell on a Saturday and was promoted as the luckiest day of the century due to its string of lucky sevens.

For Kist and others born this day, it’s all about 12’s. Kist was born at 5:12 p.m., her brother’s ship in the Navy was number 12 and it seems as if she’s always assigned to room 12 when she goes to the doctor.

“Could we also put in the paper how I weigh 112? (I wish!),” said Kist. “Maybe I would like a dozen cookies and crab legs for my birthday?”

It appears there is no central birthday party in the county for persons who share the birthday. Even in a big city like Washington, D.C., Necea Bridgett, who is 37 today, is having a hard time finding a place to party with other December 12 birthday friends.

“I’m trying to go to Vegas, but it’s not going to happen,” she said. “I’ll probably go to a local club.”

An engineering student in India, R. Ezhil Priyatharsini, turns 19. “This birthday is really gonna be much special to me,” the student stated in an email.

Hannah Bendiner of Santa Cruz, Calif., is 12 on the 12th. “She is SO excited,” her mother Naomi wrote in an email. Ryan Gunter, of Belleville, Ill., also will be 12, and he was born 12:12 a.m.

Rebecca Ruscoe of Lancaster, England, turns 16.

“Happy special birthday to all the other 12.12’ers in the USA,” wrote her mother, Jane, in an email.

Necea, Rebecca, R. Ezhil and Ryan’s mother, Kathleen, responded to the Star Beacon’s call for a reader who would be celebrating his or her 100th birthday on the 12th. While that request failed to draw any responses, we did get many others who wanted the world to know that today is their special day. Dozens responded to our request, and there simply is not room to list all the birthdays.

“I was born Dec. 12, 1956, and I will be 56,” wrote Bryan Hargrove. “I think it’s almost as special as celebrating (a) 100th birthday.”

“I will be celebrating the 59th anniversary of my birth,” wrote Stephen Kerekes. “I was born on Dec. 12, 1953, at the then Ashtabula General  Hospital.”

Tiffany Wimer, a Lakeside High student, turns 17 today. She won’t take the day off from school, but will celebrate with her mother, Rebecca, at a restaurant of Tiffany’s choice.

Corby Rich, a Lakeside Junior High teacher, will celebrate her 37th birthday by shopping for herself, son and her family — she might even get married. She and her fiance, Tony Tulino, have talked about it, and although a summer 2013 wedding is more likely, Rich is not ruling out the possibility of marking the day by tying the knot.

Down in Texas, Kathy Brand will celebrate with her step-brothers. Brand turns 53, one of her step-brothers 52, and the other, 54.

“We have always thought it was cool that we shared the same birthday, but this year is really special,” she wrote in an email.

Gloria McCarthy, who was born in 1936, said she remembers her birth date for what happened in history. It was “the day Edward abdicated the throne so that he could marry a divorced woman. How things have changed,” McCarthy, a Florida resident, wrote in an e-mail.

Lee Barnes of Pierpont was born in 1968. She planned to go out for breakfast in Erie with her family, then pick up her birthday gift, a blue-diamond ring.

Both Susan Westcott and Kate Wilcox turn 53 today.

“I’ll go out to dinner with my daughter Abbie (Brady) and my sister (Melissa Wesner) and the rest of the family,” said Wilcox, an Ashtabula resident.

Geneva resident Ed Paneto says it’s just another day. He turns 29.

“My girlfriend will make me a nice dinner,” he said. “We’ll just have dinner at home.”

Any birthday is bittersweet for Alexis Collins, who turns 9. Her father, Mike, died of cancer when she was 5.

“We’re going to take her out to dinner for her birthday,” said her mother, Tonya.

When Cheryl Luoma heard that her neighbor, Donna Shupp, was going to be 12 today, she organized a party for Donna and her friends. The party is Saturday.

“She’s going to have the best party,” said Luoma, who has booked a ventriloquist to entertain the youngsters.