Hello, Thirty-one.
It used to be it would feel strange when I'd say my new age the first couple of times. "How old are you?" "Twenty-six." Twenty-six? Dang, that sounds so old! Surely that's not me! Nowadays, not so much. I generally feel way older than I actually am. So thirty-one sounds just about right for me.
I hid my birthday from Facebook this year because something was just sitting wrong with me about the literally hundreds of well-wishes from folks who probably don't even think about my existence until FB reminds them that it's my birthday. Honestly, I don't think there's anything wrong with that. I appreciate the reminder for my FB friends' birthdays and like the chance to send well-wishes, even if I don't really "keep up" with them. But I didn't want that for me this year, for whatever reason, so I hid. And to be honest, I've had a very nice, quiet day. Admittedly, my day started too early when Isaac decided we needed to get up at 5:00 on the one day I was going to get to sleep in until 6:30. But aside from some general fatigue (who's got two thumbs and is working at the Juice Box tonight? This guy! And those thumbs come in handy at the workplace, believe me! Actually, I always wonder if that saying ticks off people who've lost fingers in construction accidents. But I digress) it's been a very nice day. We're not doing "anything special" for my birthday, which is another something I'm fine with. Sunday night, Kim let me go to what will almost certainly be my last Aeros game as a sort of present to myself. Tuesday, Kim took all the time to make not one, but THREE lasagnas (the other two in the freezer for another day), which is my absolute favorite dish. Last night, she and Robbie made a new dessert called a cookie dough cream pie. Oh my gosh, you guys. It's so good. And unbelievably rich. And today? Just sort of a normal day. Talked to a few family members, got a few texts. Even got a text from the future late last night. About to go get Robbie, then go get Kim, then get dropped off at the park for work and get in late tonight.
Oh, and once again Marvel is giving me an awesome movie for my birthday, but I'm not going to get to it until Sunday night.
On the whole, life is good :-)
Looking ahead to Year 31: I have a feeling it's going to be a big one. I can see how year 29 was like the start of a new chapter. In a lot of ways, it was about breaking me down, teaching me. This past year has been about building back up, growing in new ways. And it feels like it's been building toward...well, now. Maybe I'm just used to trilogies, but it feels like this is going to be a big year for my family and I.
And in that vein, I've resurrected my flickr 365 project. Think of it as a sequel. A photo-a-day diary of the opportunities and changes that come our way between now and May 2, 2014. Maybe we'll get to the end, look back, and say, "Yeah...turns out Year 31 was actually pretty boring."
But I doubt that'll be the case.
Anyway, check it out. (It's boring right now, but there's more pictures to come) If nothing else, you'll get to see my cute kids' smiling faces pretty much every day. That's worth thirty seconds of your time daily, right?
