I'm 37 now. Reminds me of that scene from Singles, where Janet says she thought we'd all have flying cars and what not by now (though I think she was 23 or something). I have a Prius now, which doesn't even sound like it's running half of the time. Does that count for something?
I don't like to make a big deal of birthdays anymore. When I was 10, I just wanted Lego sets no one could afford. When I was 12, all I could think about was getting sweet Transformers. When I was in high school, I just wanted money (and a girlfriend). In college, I just wanted to get back to school. The only really epic adult birthday party I ever had was my 30th, which was a bright spot in an otherwise tumultuous time.
I didn't explicitly say that I didn't want anything for my birthday to Diana, but she peeped at my Amazon wishlist and got some stuff anyway. I already blogged about the toaster. She also got me the little Lego Space Needle, which I've been eyeing since before we moved. Now I have it!
Since we have two "floating holidays" at work per year, and it seemed appropriate to use those before vacation days, I took my second one for my birthday, to make for a nice four-day weekend. The timing was right too, because work really burned me out a bit the last few weeks, as I haven't really had my hands in anything new. That'll probably change as we go into the next few months.
Originally, we were just going to see Toy Story with a set of free tickets and gift card I got from work. Then I got e-mail the night before from Gold Class saying I could get in free for my birthday, so we dropped off Simon with Uncle Joe and tried for the single showing of Iron Man 2 around noon. I didn't read the fine print though, and I couldn't use the birthday freebie on a Friday. Crap. Fortunately, the "concierge" was sympathetic, and since they hadn't sold a single seat for that show, she let us in. I had this great chicken sandwich made with actual Anchor Bar (from Buffalo) sauce. We also got some white cheddar popcorn. It was pretty yummy overall, and without any alcohol and only paying for one person, we got out of there for about $70. It's so worth it, I don't care what anyone thinks. That we had the entire theater to ourselves made it that much more special.
When we got back to Joe's, Simon was still sleeping, so we hung out for awhile. They have the most ridiculously comfortable couch ever. I get so sleepy over there when I sprawl out on it. I love seeing Simon's cousins too. Mason is every bit as cute as Simon, but you'd never know he was three months older were it not for his hair. I look so forward to the time when the three cousins are old enough to play together. Nina is well on her way, and so tall! (Relative to her size a year ago, of course.)
When we got Simon to bed at home, we popped in Kissing Jessica Stein, as it's one of the few movies from my favorites list that Diana has not seen. It was a wonderfully relaxed evening.
As with every other annual event in the last year or so, I'm overwhelmed to think about the change since the last instance of the event. On my last birthday, we went down to Ashland and roamed around the university, where I was overwhelmed by all of the feelings and memories associated with going to school there. Then the next day, I met up with ICOM friends and bought an iPhone 3GS to upgrade. All the while, I was still "self-employed."
This year, I don't feel like I'm able to really commemorate anything. So few things are truly familiar anymore. I'm not suggesting that it's a bad thing, it's just remarkably different. The real gifts in life, which is not to say I didn't deliberately obtain them, are my little boy, my new home town and my new job. I still struggle a bit with the fact that I can't have all of this, and my Cleveland life as well, but it's positive change overall. I just miss my friends, my amusement parks and even the house I can't sell. Oh, and I miss my hot tub.
For the rest of the weekend, things are kind of up in the air. With Simon eating quasi-solid food, his sleep routines, however sketchy they were, are out of whack, and you know how we like to get him moving toward routine. One of my friends from work invited us out to see July 4th stuff a few towns over, but I guess it depends on which times everyone is awake. If there aren't fireworks visible from where we are, I suspect we won't see any. I'd love to go up to the park-and-ride in the highlands next door, as I bet we could see many fireworks, all over the east side.
So if you're supposed to be reflective on your birthday, rest assured, I am. And I'm thankful for everything that has worked for us in the last year. I really feel like I'm starting to get good at life. :)
No comments yet.