The Day I Changed The World

Time just moved me into my thirty first year. Ten, no, eleven minutes ago, I officially got one year older. It's not just my day. Today is Earth Day. It's also Jack Nicholson's and Anna's (my Mini-Me) birthday. Tomorrow is someone else's day: Shakespeare's and Troy's birthday, in fact.

I am quiet tonight, not like last year. Last year was the party of a lifetime that lasted 'til daylight. I didn't want anything like that this year. Maybe if I'm lucky, I'll get to whisper "please don't stop" into someone's ear. That's the only birthday invitation I'm extending this year. It could happen. It could just as easily not happen. It's happened and not happened before. The last birthday I got to say those words was four years ago.

Last year was a mile marker, so I did it up right. This year, I'm playing it down.

I had actually forgotten several times this week that it was happening. It just hasn't been a big deal, and I've made no special plans. Yet when the clock struck midnight, all of a sudden I felt... weird. Vulnerable. A sense of expectation. Birthdays have this way of making you feel like that, which is ridiculous, I know. I'd like to think I was beyond it - you know, the sentiment that has been ingrained in us for a lifetime that somehow we're special and that this day is the one time each year when we should be celebrated. I mean, really, it's just another day. But I guess I'm not beyond it. Bummer.

Last year's celebration invitation:


~ the lady love