Indulging

I give myself one time each year to indulge myself in an, "Oh Dear God, I'm having a birthday!" moment.

Apparently, I usually do this in some proximity to my actual birthday, but people, November is a frantic month (see my list of complaints), and I just won't have time for my yearly indulgence (well...maybe just a little).

Yes, it is nearing that time when people shower me with gifts, but since I was sixteen, I have used my birthday as a measure of the year's success and a way to set goals for myself. With its proximity to the New Year, it works well.

My birthday is exactly one month from today.

Apparently, last year I didn't mope. Well, screw that. I need my annual mope. And here it is, folks. My list of complaints (note that, for your reading pleasure, I have turned this into an easy, simple to read list).

*November is the most ridiculous month in which to have a birthday. Each and every year it is an absolute mess of obligations and big huge projects and full, busy work days. I have a major event at work in 3 weeks, that only gives me one week after that to ponder my the anniversary of my birth. That's just not fair. And it's like this EVERY YEAR.

*The November picture on calendars is always the ugliest.

*My birthday has fallen on Thanksgiving several times, which makes it rather difficult to celebrate. I'll probably have a birthday party sometime in mid-December, at which no less than half of the attendees will ask me why I didn't do something closer to my own birthday. To them I say, "Because you all have other plans for Thanksgiving weekend. That's why."

*It has just started to sink in that I will be in the OK Corral on my birthday instead of with my mom, hearing the story of my birth repeated over and over again.

*What I will miss most is hugging my mom on my birthday.

*It sometimes sucks having a holiday birthday and traveling on said birthday.

*I worry that no matter what happens on that special day, WG will not be able to satisfy me completely.

*I have already started to accept that my birthday will not actually be about me this year, seeing as how we will be surrounded by WG's friends.

*It is sweet that WG's step-mom has offered to throw me a birthday party. That one's not a complaint.

*Twenty-seven seems like a momentous year. I want to do great things at 27. No, I don't know what.

*Twenty-six was a learning year. I have a feeling 27 offers more of the same.

*Twenty-seven is only three years from 30.

*Yet, being three years from 30 doesn't make me a grown-up.

To please those who think that Thanksgiving week (and, thus, my birthday) has something to do with being grateful (whatever...), I offer "Things about 26 for which I am thankful" (I just have to say that I have been Ms. Grammar throughout the post. Sheesh, it's like I'm a second-generation English major or something).

*I fell in love.

*I fell in love without losing myself.

*I learned to appreciate my job (sort of).

*I taught my parents that, just because I moved out, it doesn't mean I don't love them.

*I am blessed with lovely and amazing friends.

Okay. Indulgence over. Only happy, smiling faces over here at Pink Cereal and Raspberries. Riiiiight.