September 13, 2014: My Birthday

Some B-day flowers and balloons for good measure :)

"You say it's your birthday. It's my birthday too, yeah...."

My birthday is was technically yesterday. Birthday Weekend. And I love having my birthday. I love everything about.

I'm grateful for my parents birthing me mid-September. A glorious time to celebrate being born. My memories are filled with sunny, but cooling, transitional days from summer into fall.

As an adult, this annual celebration has most times been in the enjoyment of the outdoors with much anticipated first-of-fall weather. Last year's milestone was exceptional as I watched my son collect a football win under an orange moon sky. Friends gathered before and after this high school event as I donned my gift of a pink tiara.

Birthdays of days past have included Husker football tailgates and wine with friends on the restaurant patios. A 40th b-day golf celebration was filled with a dozen friends on an otherwise tranquil Thursday night. Many of my b-days have begun with birthday runs with my favorite gal pals at the crack of dawn under starry black skies. Our tradition is to finish with a celebratory coffee and homemade pumpkin bread. A great way to start a special day.

My 42nd birthday was in Chicago, running a half-marathon with the Dream Team with included my 20-something twin cousins, Angelina and Stefano. 45th was a rainy b-day year with Garrett flying in from Denver, just to spend my day together. We enjoyed a movie marathon at Film Streams and a surprise dinner with friends.

As a child, I had the ideal birth date. I was one of the first birthdays of the school year. First to adorn a birthday crown and first go through the coveted human spanking machine. Parties were an easy skip to my house, just blocks from our grade school, with outdoor games of pin-the-tale on the donkey and Red Rover. Sleep overs were a must with opened screened windows filled with the noise of birds chirping over little girl giggles.

Entering my young adulthood adventure as a college student, my birthday coincided with new-found friendships. Connections with fresh faces with hometowns outside my own town of Remsen, I invited several of of my new girlfriends to travel the short nine mile drive from our new college home to my childhood home.

My parents warmly treated us with my traditional birthday meal of choice, spaghetti, and a candle-filled banana bread as my birthday cake of choice. My mom played the piano as my dad happily served my b-day feast to my new girlfriends. It was a birthday to remember. I remember it like yesterday.

That was 29 years ago; my 18th birthday. The crew of gals that celebrated with me in Remsen that night are still my friends. Robbie is a constant fixture in my life. The many others are just a FaceBook click away as we stay caught up via posts and messages. Thank-you to social media for allowing us all to stay connected over many miles and states so many years later. It was a magical time to be 18.

Now I am 47. And I LIKE it. Yes, I do. Garrett was giving me a hard time about getting old (note that he is two years older than me...feel free to do the math). I quickly reminded him that it is better than the alternative. Not getting older.

So, yet again, it was a glorious birthday weekend. I enjoyed family, friends, a pumpkin spice latte, gorgeous downtime in Denver, a plethora of cards/e-mails/texts/FB messages, a beautiful long bike ride through the foothills and then the grand finale....watching a Broncos win at Mile High Stadium with some of my favorite people.

Life is good. Thanks to everyone for your kind words and good wishes. I will take them all to heart as I do my best to make year #47 exceptional :)