All about me.

Yes. It's all about me - for the next 20 minutes anyway. So, if you aren't interested in reading my diatribe feel free to skip down to the bottom where if you are lucky I will post a recent picture of Malcolm - just don't tell me about it as I might think you rude and not want to be your friend anymore. I can do this because, even at 37, I am hopelessly immature and juvenile. :)

I turned 37 yesterday. There is something special about having a birthday right before the new year. I hated it as a kid - there is nothing worse than having a birthday between December 21st and January 5th as a child. Gifts wrapped in Christmas paper, the Christmas/Birthday combo gift, the forgotten gift, the second best because they were out of stock gift, and the sorry, I am totally broke gift. But I'm not bitter. Not at all. Now I kind of like the forgotten birthday because I can perpetually be 28. It was a REALLY good year.

I am having a bit of a hard time with this birthday because even though it is not a "milestone" - not like 16, 18, 21, or 30 - it does mark the downhill slide toward 40. Now I definitely have to round up. I am absolutely in my "late thrities". I am even in a different demographic - goodbye t0 the 25-35 age group. Accordingly I have started to find grey hairs and wrinkles. Of course I am also finding acne which is just not right. One should never have to worry about wrinkles, grey hair, and acne at the same time. Come on!

It's not just about rounding up to 40. I'm also experiencing a number of other things that signal the end of youth. I know I'm not old but I just don't qualify as "young" anymore. We've decided not to have any more children. I don't necessarily want any more kids but for some reason I am have difficulty dealing with the end of my childbearing years. I am also realizing that many of the things that I have always wanted to do will probably never come to pass. For example: I will never be on the Olympic Women's soccer team, a world class figure skater (no, I never took lessons but that's beside the point), backpacking through Europe, going into the Peace Corps, and living in South America. I could go on but I won't - you get the idea. Now some of these things don't even sound so good anymore - I think I have lost any desire to stay in a youth hostel and a new eyebrow ring wouldn't look quite so cool... Or would it? I also know that I could still do some of these things but I feel I'm running out of time.

On the upside, according to my hubby, having a mid-life crisis at 37 means I will live to be at least 74. Get it? Mid-life crisis? Ha! So I have another 37 years left. Hopefully I'll be able to move for all of them. Fortunately I believe that my life is what I make it and that wonderful opportunites can pop up anytime - I just have to keep my mind and heart open.

I have been so blessed thus far - a beautiful family, a loving husband, great freinds, good health, and LOTS of unexpected adventures. So thank you to all the good folks who have been around for my first 37 years - I hope you'll stick around for some more. As for now, I'm not crossing anything off the list. After all - I'm sure there will be women's soccer team in the Senior Olympics when I'm ready.