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Birthday Week: Day #1

New Year's is my one-week pre-birthday marker. On NYE, I think about my birthday.* I wonder Do I want to make a big deal out of it this year, or tell no one and pretend its a normal day? I have this debate every year, and it seems this year I've landed on BIG DEAL. I think it's because 25 is a "milestone" year, and for the second time, I'm not wishing I was three years older.

Today, I began to celebrate my birthday. The week of fantastic-ness (I'm assuming it will last) started with a non-date date, courtesy of my younger-but-bigger brother, Jonathan. He transited for an hour or more to take me for dinner. He brought my parents' gift, which they had subtly sent with him when we flew back from Ontario. He let me choose the restaurant. And he was a perfect gentleman.

If I were to go on an actual date, I would like it to go something like tonight did. Laughter. Serious conversation. Delicious food (Burgoo, I never tire of you!). An errand run to the grocery store after dinner. And then he carried my groceries home for me.

Granted, if this had been an actual date, I would recommend against two things:
a) joking about leaving dinner with the waitress instead of the birthday girl
b) discussions involving vomit, ingrown toenails or Zelda tattoos...

To make a good evening better, Jonathan forgot his gift for me, which means that my birthday celebrations are guaranteed to go on until Sunday, when he will next see me.

There is a wrapped gift (but I know what it is) and two envelopes addressed to me on my desk. They sit there, not taunting me, but promising me that the best is yet to come. I love unopened gifts - all the excitement of expectation wrapped up in paper and wishing me well.

Hoooooooooooooray!


*Confession: I don't really care about New Year's.

January is statistically the most depressing month of the year. Why do we celebrate it? Does going from an 8 to a 9 to a 10 on the calendar really matter that much? There's never any special feeling of euphoria when I count backwards from 10 to 1 and then shout Happy New Year! It's not that I'm a party-pooper. I like to party, and if this is the reason, I'll show up. I'll even wear a costume (because we all need more costume parties in our lives). But for me, the two major 'year' markers have always been the start of the school year & my birthday. Even though I've been out of school for 4 years, work has lined up with the same semester rhythm. So it's been easy to keep that pattern.

Comments

  1. Dennis9:18 AM

    Glad to hear you had such a good time with Jonathan. Who knew he could be such a gentlman! I suspected it and have seen glimpses of it. Enjoy the day when you get to the quarter of a century mark! :D

    ReplyDelete
  2. Mindy11:53 AM

    Hurray for good non-date dates :) Happy Birthday (all week!)

    1. I share the same love for unopened gifts and can't understand those who like to peek!

    2. I, too, don't care much for New Years and would be asleep before midnight if I could have it my way.

    ReplyDelete
  3. vanman917:31 PM

    So ... you provided the link to last year's BD post and all that wondering about the "24th" year but never answered the question. Was it a good year? A future post perhaps?

    Happy BD!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Beth7:38 PM

    vanman - a great question. i will blog it tonight!

    ReplyDelete

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