I haven’t really been feeling the blogging thing lately, but I can’t let a big birthday like this get too far past me without writing about it.
Actually, turning 40 was not nearly as big of a deal as turning 30 was. I had kind of a weird, hormonal, existential crisis surrounding age 30, where turning 40 felt more… Zen. I’m in the best shape of my life, physically; I feel comfortable with being myself; and most aspects of my life are stable (even my son, who is constant in his ever-changing nature).
My big present from Aaron was a new desk:
That meant that I needed to clean up my old desk and get it out of there. (Tricksty husband.) In addition to being a proper “grown-up” desk to replace the old, beat-up thing I got for $20 from a garage sale back some 10 or 15 years back, just being forced to pack up everything and revisit its necessity was a gift in itself. I’m still sifting through all the junk that used to be in my desk area — some of it is in the basement, and some of it is in boxes in the office, but most of it is stuff that I’m looking at and wondering why I even needed it in the first place, much less why I thought it needed to be in the vicinity of my desk.
The weekend before my birthday was Fantasticon, in downtown Toledo, so we booked our sitter for that weekend and made a date afternoon of it (instead of our usual date night). We spent a couple of hours walking around the con and buying stuff, then took our stuff back to the car and walked a mile to a coffee shop that had just closed by the time we got there. So, we got milkshakes at the greasy spoon across the street, instead, then walked to the riverfront and sat for a spell before trekking the mile back to the con.
We walked around the con one more time, since we still had our admission wristbands on, then walked down the street to Kengo Sushi and Yakitori for dinner. Alas, we didn’t book in time to enjoy the omakase, but the sushi and yakitori was quite sufficient — and cost about as much as a standard sushi dinner, anyway, if not a smidge less. After dinner, we went to our local Starbucks and had some dessert coffee before heading home in time to kiss our son goodnight.
My actual birthday was the following Friday, and my co-workers (especially Nicole) made it a special one. Sheryl grabbed me as soon as I got in and gave me a birthday doughnut — technically, she said, they were carb-load doughnuts for the Glass City Marathon / Half Marathon the following Sunday, but she’d been thinking of me when she bought them. Then I got to my desk to find that Nicole had decorated it in yellow streamers — plus, she made salted caramel brownies and peanut butter cup cookies.
The fact that she put them in my cube meant that I had a steady stream of well-wishers coming in all day to talk to me and get birthday goodies. (The two-mile birthday run I took didn’t mitigate the calories I consumed over the course of the day, unfortunately.) Any visitors to my cube also got to see Connor’s awesome hand-drawn birthday card that he’d insisted I bring to work with me.
When I got home from work, Connor and Aaron sang Happy Birthday to me before Aaron went off to work. After dinner, Connor insisted that I needed to blow out a candle for my birthday, so I stuck a candle in one of Nicole’s cookies, lit it, and let Connor sing me another round of Happy Birthday.
Saturday was a family celebration day, and I got to pick our lunch and dinner destinations. For lunch, I decided that some San Marcos tacos were in order — and ice cream for dessert, of course, like we’d been discussing for a few days beforehand. Connor had been super hyped for ice cream ever since we’d decided on it in lieu of cake. (We don’t get out for ice cream much, obviously.) We all enjoyed a kiddie cone (i.e. a single scoop): Connor had Peanut Butter Overload, I had Moose Tracks, and Aaron had a Cappuccino something.
Connor didn’t nap that day, but I did. I stretched out on the couch in the family room for a nice hour-long siesta before going outside and doing some much-needed weeding.
For dinner, I decided — especially since Connor was un-napped — that we should stay home and order pizza. In our house, pizza is a Very Special Treat, reserved for times like when the sitter stays all afternoon, or when Grammy comes to visit. Chicken Bacon Ranch is still our reigning favorite. Om nom nom.
So, turning 40. Overall, a pretty positive experience. I received six physical cards (two from companies or firms with which I do business, one from Nicole at work, and three from family), a few freebies I’m not going to use, a couple Happy Birthday tweets, one birthday Instagram comment, and some 30+ birthday greetings on Facebook.
First order of business: shedding the three Birthday Weekend pounds I gained. Oof.