Birthday Thoughts

I feel old.

I don’t usually feel my age, but today, three things happened that made me feel every one of my now-34 years.

First, when my students found out it was my birthday, one asked me how old I was. My standard answer is “guess,” because I’ve always looked about 5 years younger than I really am. “Definitely in your 30s,” she replied. I was shocked! I was actually speechless for a second, because I can’t ever remember anyone ever guessing anywhere close to my actual age.

Next, due to a series of circumstances, my friends who took me to dinner needed to meet at 5 PM. When the organizer of tonight’s fete called to confirm, we joked a little about how we were doing a bit of a senior citizen impression by leaving for dinner so early.

But how I really felt my age today? Due to the fantastic step aerobics class I did yesterday, my calves today feel like they are barely hanging on to my leg bones, and during our early-bird dinner, I yawned several times. And here it is, 9:30 PM the night of my birthday, and I’m so tired that all I want to do is get in bed, watch an episode of Arrested Development and sleep for days.

It was a good day, though—between emails, snail mail, phone calls, and Facebook, all of the people most important to me remembered it was my birthday. And there’s one more thing that makes me feel my age, but in a good way—I would much rather be remembered, have good conversations with people, and generally just feel loved than have a cartload of gifts for my birthday.