Happy Birthday to Me!

Today, (September 8th, even though my blogger clock says 9/7 10:46 and it's really 9/8 at 12:53am) I turn 25 and I'm excited.  Not because of gifts I'm getting or parties I'm having, but because it's a fun day to look back.  I think birthdays are so neat.  You're given a certain day to celebrate your life, and have your life celebrated, and so it only seems natural that you would reflect on your year, or if you're ambitious, your years.

It's kind of birthday tradition that when B calls me to say happy birthday and ask how I'm feeling, I moan and complain, saying I feel old and rickety and, goodness, is this how he wakes up feeling every day?  It never gets old, at least not to me.

I've had some great birthdays, like when I turned 16 and my parents threw me a big party for the high school to attend (we were a super small school).  They set up a band in the front yard and we went to town.  Loved it.  Ironically enough, that same band might play the wedding.  We'll just see!

There have been good birthdays and bad birthdays.  Sixteen was double-sided, as I also failed my driver's test that day (I bumped a curb on a turn.  Come on!  It's not like I mowed a boy scout down in a cross walk).  I remember turning 12 and asking my mom for CDs and getting... all CDs.  Still not sure what I expected to happen there!  

I remember as the years fell away and you stopped asking for toys and movies and started asking for clothes and purses.  Birthdays seemed less fun, more functional, but still celebrations all the same.

My favorites growing up were the skate center parties where all the girls loaded in the back of the van and headed home for sleepovers where all we did was eat ice cream, play dress up, and make weird home videos.  Pool parties were awesome, especially the ones where mom set up the brownie sundae bar and made, I kid you not, six double batches of brownies.  Chocolate+Coke+Pool=Hopped up middle schoolers.

Birthdays in college were always great.  My birthday falls the first week of school, during move-in, so my parents would take my roommates and B out for dinner at Macaroni Grill or someplace else that would make you stand on a chair while they sang to you.  For my 21st, they left me a bottle of champagne, which B used to make mimosas for my roommate C and me.

I've spent birthdays at the beach and in class, having pool parties, slumber parties, dinners out, and time with my parents.  I don't remember having a bad birthday, though I do remember the distinct feeling, at 17, I believe, that birthdays meant more than presents and parties, but they literally meant growing up.

So I'm 25 today, and I'm happy.  My life has included some real break-neck speed bumps and some wonderful images for the highlight reel, but I can truly say I'm happy because I have everything I could want or need: friends that love me, a man who will promise to love me forever, family that only wants the best for me, a job that leaves me fulfilled and excited for the coming day, and a sense of peace that, even though I don't know where this year will take me, I'm excited to get there.  I'm so thankful for each and every piece of that list, as well as the year to come.

Highlights from the past year: My new niece S, seeing B on one knee, going out "on my own," pulling off Thanksgiving at home, making it through the first year at my first job, living with a great roommate, seeing B move so happily from his life playing professional baseball to the life of a law student, getting one last holiday with my sweet grandma, meeting a best friend's (H's) new baby, and buying myself a really pretty dress that I really wanted (seriously).

Highlights to come during this year: Marrying B, gathering all loved friends and family for the wedding, extra time with my parents and B's parents during planning, the birth of a new niece or nephew in December, sharing holidays with B for the first time, spending one last year "on my own" soaking up as much friend time and experience as I can, honeymoon!, and seeing B every day for the first time in years.

It's going to be a great year.  I can't wait to get started.  But first, I'll go to sleep...