I am one more year into my thirties, and I gotta say: I don’t hate it!
I turned 32 yesterday, and I have to admit: It was the best birthday since… well, since I celebrated 30 in Kyiv. Not to blame 31 or anything, but it was my first pandemic birthday, so I’ll cut it some slack.
Yesterday was great! I woke up super early so I could help Ryan drop his truck off for an oil change, then was surprised by flowers on my desk once I got back to my home office.
I dropped Yukon off at the groomer’s, had a performance review at work (it went well, thank god) and got to videochat with my Ukrainian host family!
My mom sent me a birthday gift last week and made me SWEAR I would wait to open it, so I did. As it turns out, my high school English teacher, Mr. Walters, wrote a book of poetry and had it published!
It’s one of the most touching gifts I’ve ever gotten, actually. Mr. Walters was one of my favorite high school teachers! He taught American Literature, English Literature and AP English, and he was an incredibly inspirational teacher.
After work, I went to the grocery store and bought a TON of food because… pumpkin party!
I’ll be leaving Flagstaff for FOUR MONTHS in a few days (more on that later!) so I wanted to go out with a bang. My coworker Danika suggested a pumpkin-carving party, so Ryan and I decided, why the hell not?
Let’s throw a Halloween-slash-housewarming-slash-birthday-slash-going-away-party, all in one.
Oh, and did I mention? Yesterday was also the Detroit Red Wings season home opener. Could not have been a more perfect day.
I made stuffed squash and laid out Halloween cookies, and Ryan rolled in with a dozen pumpkins for all our (vaccinated) friends.
I think my favorite part was watching Tilly try to steal all the pumpkin.
I honestly couldn’t have asked for a better birthday!
I sadly don’t have a photo of my pumpkin, which is probably for the best given that I made it through several glasses of red wine while carving it… and it became increasingly more uneven with each glass of wine.
However, I feel as though it’s important that I note my design was the Star Wars Rebel Alliance logo. Even if I don’t have proof.
31 undersold and over-delivered. I was fairly new to Flagstaff on my last birthday, so I spent it at work and then at the yoga studio.
I never in a million years saw 31 bringing me a new apartment, a new dog, a new boyfriend and a dozen new friends.
It’s funny. In the past, I’ve had a little bit of a tendency to set these massive goal lists. Like, “30 things to accomplish by 30.” And, instead, my life has taken a very different direction than I ever saw it taking. I don’t think I ever accomplished more than five of those things I felt like I had to accomplish before 30, but in retrospect, does it even matter? It does not.
I’m totally content with where I’m at in life, and 31 was an exceptionally blissful year.
I mean, the bar was very, very low, but 31 exceeded it.
Of course, that means the bar is incredibly high for 32.
Please don’t let me down, 32!
