Birthdays and the Like...

I'm glad it's Friday. I think that's pretty much the tagline for every blog I write on a Friday. This seems like the longest week in ages. Most likely, it's because I haven't worked a full week in a while. That's the nice thing about the Thanksgiving-New Year stretch of time. From Thanksgiving onwards, there's enough going on with holiday parties and the like that even regular length weeks go quickly. This week, it's the first New-Year slump week so that means it's dragged by.

Still, it's Friday now. It's my birthday tomorrow so I'm hoping today flies by. Yet, since it's my birthday, the weather is supposed to be horrible. I'm hoping it isn't since i have plans to drive to my parents. Yet if the weather makes the roads impassable, I won't be horribly surprised. That's the penalty of having a birthday in January. Living in California was actually rather nice for my birthday- it might have been chilly but it was still the sort of weather where you can find yourself taking a walk and enjoying the fact that you're not bundled up to the nines in multiple layers of clothing and a sensible pair of winter boots.

Yet even when I lived in England, I remember my birthday having horrid weather. It's always freezing. We always manage to have a snow or ice storm. One year, I wanted to go to see a movie and though my parents were kind enough to take me anyway, the drive took forever because there was no road visible, just clumps of solid ice.

When I was much younger, my mother would get me a couple of small things for my birthday but then, on my older brother's birthday in May, I'd celebrate my birthday too. It was a nice idea. I'm not sure how my brother felt about it but I didn't mind. It always used to be tough as a kid anyway- the stores are all closing out from Christmas and by January 10th, all that's left is the stuff no one wants.

Not that birthdays are about presents anyway but when you're a kid...presents are good. Ok, fine, as a grown-up, I still love presents. To be fair though, I also love to give presents. It's fun to pick out gifts for people.

I suppose birthdays are about getting older. I'm not a big fan of that anymore. I've reached the stage where I'm happy the way I am and I don't want to be any older. Then again, I never really see myself being the age I am- which I choose not to reveal to you. I still feel like I did ten years ago with perhaps a few more aches and pains and, perhaps, a little more wisdom. Nothing much is going to change tomorrow when the calendar shows I've officially passed another year on earth. I'm still going to adore Harry Potter, I'm still going to love Green Day and I'm still going to eat Cheetos with a fork (or toast tongs, if I have them on hand).

As a kid, I used to think people my current age were grown ups, creatures who were never children. Now, I know I was silly and I probably read too much Enid Blyton. In those books, the grown ups were barely acknowledged, creatures too old and dull to be part of the adventure or fun. Now I'm one of those grownups. It's a little scary when I think about it. I'm not really sure I like being a grownup.

Then again, when I go to the store and buy a bottle of wine (and hopefully not spill it on the floor) or I get to order appetizers and dessert instead of a real meal or I go home, bake cookies and then eat half of them while they're still hot from the oven, I do appreciate the fact that I'm a grownup. I still get a thrill from buying a 2-litre bottle of Coca-Cola all for me. When we were kids, we only had Coke on weekends and we had to share a 2-litre. It was pretty cool and I still appreciate it now. I had pretty great parents- they knew when to say no but never deprived us. It made for a pretty great upbringing, even when I was a bit of a monster in my teens.

So I suppose there are some things to be said for being an adult. Although now I am one, it would be rather nice to stop aging now. Still, it is rather nice to have a birthday. People are extra nice on birthdays. I already have a couple of gifts from my awesome best friend. I've been very good and haven't unwrapped them. This is pure torture for me. I'm horribly nosy and usually have to know what's inside a gift. I'm being good though. It'll make it all the more special when I unwrap them tomorrow.

I've decided that instead of making new year resolutions, I'm making birthday resolutions. After all, I wasn't born on a new year and thus had to wait almost 355 days AFTER I was born to celebrate one. I don't exactly know what those resolutions will be but I'll work on it. I do know that this is the year I'm going to get published in some form or another and I'm not talking about publishing this blog. That's one resolution, at least.

I apologize, once again, for the babbling nature of this email but by now you should be used to it. Sometimes I have a topic, sometimes I don't. Today, i didn't. I just thought, hey, I should probably blog about my birthday so I did. Thanks, as always, for reading.

Have a great weekend!

The Anticlimatic Nature of the New Year

This time of year is strange. Two weeks ago, I was rejoicing that it was almost Christmas. We were still buying decorations and gifts at full-price, wrapping them, running around doing last minute shopping, baking....all the warm traditions that go along with Christmas week.

Now, those same decorations that made us feel warm and cosy now seem tired and almost redundant. The stores are selling their Christmas merchandise at 50-75% off. It's a great deal and next year, the bargains will seem purposeful and smart. It is hard, however, to get motivated to go browse the Christmas clearance section. The further behind us Christmas gets, the harder it is to browse. It doesn't help that everything is thrown into one aisle that is crammed with people, fighting to buy that packet of icicles for next years tree that is now only 25 cents.

My tree is still up though I'll take it down tomorrow. As I've mentioned, as is often a tradition in the UK, my family keeps their tree up for the twelve days following Christmas- through Epiphany on January sixth.

What is it about Christmas that seems so exciting until it's passed and then it just seems tired? It's not as though there's much waiting after New Years. January, February and March are the longest months of the year. Here in the Midwest, they're dreary months, full of unpredictable weather, darkness, dampness and grey. Even for people like me who loves snow, they're hard months to get through. Spring is not certain until April when it starts to approach timidly at first and then as May approaches, it's in full swing, even though there is still a chance of a rare snowfall.

It's the next few months that are the hard ones. I always thought it odd that New Years was at the start of the these months. I know it's all based on a calendar but it would be so much more interesting if the New Year began in the spring, the renewal of the earth visible in the little green shoots that quickly become daffodils, tulips, hyanciths and daisies. Instead, we ring in the new year and then....nothing. Months of winter lie ahead, those green shoots just hopes, hibernating in the earth until the snows begin to melt and the earth is newly green again.

I suppose in other parts of the world, New Year isn't in Winter. I should probably take that into account. However, I don't live in the other hemisphere and honestly, couldn't image celebrating Christmas in the middle of summer. That would be strange. It was strange enough living on the west coast and having the days building up to Christmas be 70 degrees and sunny.

Don't get me wrong. I still love Winter. I'm one of the weirdos who doesn't mind a spot of bad weather provided my love ones are safe and not driving the treacherous roads. I like nothing better than a snow day, burrowing down with a mug of hot chocolate, a jigsaw slowly in progress on the table, a stack of books taunting me, trying to get me to choose which one to get lost in as I enjoy the fact that I'm a prisoner of the weather.

Yet I still think that it's odd that we ring in the New Year and then....that's it. We all go back to work. We make and try to keep resolutions and that's pretty much it. It feels as though we should have another big holiday in February, something to get us through that month that may be the shortest on the calendar but can sometimes be the darkest, hardest to get through month of the year.

Then again, maybe Spring wouldn't be so welcomed if we didn't have the bleak period of nothingness before it arrived.

Either way, it's something to think about. I'll take down my tree tomorrow and try to find something to replace the emptyness that the room now presents. Maybe I should put my new exercise bike there. I made a resolution to get in better shape. I figured if I go with an exercise bike, i can watch TV while using it. I can be an energetic couch potato instead of a hippo-like one instead.

Whatever your resolutions may be, if you made any at all, I hope 2009 is a good year for you all, whatever it may bring.

Happy Monday.