Tag Archives: birthday

Having Some Workout Celebrations (or I’m Glad I Felt Ok At The Beginning Of The Week)

I knew going into this past week of workouts that it was likely going to be one of my bad weeks. But I really hoped it wouldn’t kick in as soon as I thought it might. And I’m glad it didn’t because my week of workouts kicked off with a big celebratory workout!

Monday was my birthday workout! I do laugh a bit at the fact that I worked out at 6:30 in the morning on my birthday. I still can’t believe I’ve turned into this person. But why should I change up my routine for Mondays? And I like doing a workout on my birthday so this was perfect.

It was a power workout (which is usually my favorite so that was a nice birthday treat!) and we had 4 blocks on each side of the room. 2 of the cardio blocks were run/row blocks and 2 were timed cardio blocks. For the run/row blocks, we had .1 miles on the treadmill (.4 on the bike) and then a 100-meter row and repeated that until the block ended. And the other 2 blocks we had rounds of 30-second all-outs and 45-second recoveries. All of the blocks were tough because I made them tough, but they were really good too.

On the floor, 2 blocks were regular floor blocks and 2 blocks were times exercises (that were when cardio had timed blocks). For the regular blocks, we had pull-ups, triceps, chest presses, and bicep curls on the straps. In the first timed block, we had neutral thrusters with weights during the 30-second intervals and hops during the 45-second intervals. And the second timed block had hip hinge low rows during the 30-second blocks and lateral hops during the 45-second intervals.

And of course, I had to do a birthday workout picture with my coach!

On Wednesday, we had an endurance workout. I also started to have to deal with pain and nausea (I did appreciate that it didn’t start on my birthday). So that made the workout a bit more of a challenge.

For cardio, we had 2 blocks. Each block was intervals of push paces followed by 1-minute base paces. We started at a 3-minute push pace and it went down by 30-seconds each round. The entire thing was split in half so we did the first half of it as the first block and then had some recovery time before continuing the intervals until we were finishing with a 30-second push pace.

On the floor, we also had 2 blocks. The first block was a bit of a balance focus. We had pullovers, hip bridges, plank work, and hyperextension all on the Bosu. After doing 2 rounds of all the exercises, we had a 500-meter row. I was a bit slow and didn’t get a chance to finish my row. The second block had 2 rounds of front squats to shoulder presses and hammer curls before having a 500-meter row. This time, I did get to finish my row even though it wasn’t that fast.

Friday’s workout was themed for Friday the 13th. And besides the workout being themed, it felt like the situation in the studio was a bit cursed too. All the wi-fi went down, which meant we had no heart rate monitor screens to look at and the screens that showed the workout were down too. I’ve done classes without being able to monitor my heart rate and they can be an interesting challenge, but I usually have to be careful because I know my heart rate can be a bit crazy too. But this time, I didn’t worry too much about it because my pain and nausea were really awful so I was doing a very light effort through the entire workout.

For cardio, we had 3 blocks and 2 of them were rowing blocks. For the first and last block, we had 5 rounds of 30-second all-outs on the rower with only 15 seconds to recover between each round. On a normal day, this would probably have been a fun challenge, but because of how I was feeling I was just trying to keep rowing. I did make it through all of the rowing, but because I wasn’t rowing hard I didn’t get a lot of distance for each block. And on the treadmill and bike for the middle block, we had 3 rounds of a 3 1/2-minute distance challenge with 75 seconds to recover between each round. I did better on the bike than I expected. I was able to keep my resistance level at my push pace level for the entire time for each of them. I still didn’t get as much distance because I wasn’t pedaling as fast as I can, but at least I had the resistance up.

On the floor, we also had 3 blocks and the first and last blocks were timed with the rowers. We had 30 seconds of effort with 15 seconds of rest. In the first block, the exercises were neutral half thrusters and skater lunges. And in the last block, we had ground to press with weights and high knees (which I did more like marching in place). And for the second block, we had 13 reps of a lot of exercises. We had pull-ups on the straps, rollouts on the straps, push-ups, bench tap squats, sit-ups, and bear planks. I didn’t have to do too many modifications due to my nausea, but I did move slowly since I needed time to let the pain and nausea pass.

Saturday’s workout was the toughest one for me because of how I felt. I had spent a lot of Friday after my workout really miserable and having to be very careful with timing out my medications because I didn’t want to miss anything. Saturday wasn’t as horrible as Friday day was, but it was still worse than Friday morning had been. So again, I just did what I could in my workout and didn’t stress too much about what I could or couldn’t do.

For cardio, we had long push paces with all-outs after. It started with a 3-minute push pace with no incline and each time we decreased the time but increased the incline/resistance. And every time we had a 1-minute all-out after the push pace. And I did make the effort to increase the resistance level each time, even if I was feeling horrible. I just took a lot of breaks to let the pain and nausea pass when I needed to and then continued when I could.

On the floor, we started and ended with a 2-minute row. For both rows, I knew I wasn’t going to be able to go that hard so I just tried to row without stopping. And I’m proud of myself because I was able to do that even if I got a very low distance at the end of the row. Being able to row without stopping has been a struggle, so knowing I can do that when I feel my worst is a great feeling. We had 2 other blocks between the rowing. In the first block, we had lateral hops, sumo deadlifts, and sumo squats to froggers (which I had to split into 2 different exercises). And the second block we had squats, weighted squats, and skier swings. I wasn’t going super heavy with the weights because of how I felt, but at least I did use weights for all the exercises that asked for them.

I’m so glad I had a great birthday workout and felt like myself for it. That really started off this past week on a great note. I wish I had been feeling amazing for the rest of the week, but I knew that was very unlikely so I am not too disappointed that happened. And for this week, it’s still up in the air how I’ll feel. I might be only a little off or I can have some of my worst days. I’ll just have to wait, see, and let you all know in my workout post next week!

I Really Don’t Feel Older (or Doing A Double Take With My Age)

Leading up to my birthday, a lot of people asked me if I was feeling older. And in many ways, I feel like I’ve aged decades since March 2020. Some of it was growth that I appreciate gaining because I have learned more about myself that I don’t think I would have figured out for a while unless I was isolated at home. And some of it is growth that I see physically that I don’t love. I’m glad I’m back to doing some of my beauty routines again because that does help me feel better about myself, but I’m not doing everything yet so I still feel like I look older than I want to.

I don’t think about what my actual age is that often. I don’t think I look or feel my age. And the saying that age is just a number is really true. What 38-year-olds were doing a generation or two ago has nothing to do with what they are doing now at the same age. I don’t have to compare myself to what others did when they were my age or what younger people are doing now that I didn’t do. And it’s not often that people ask me how old I am, so there are plenty of times that I honestly have to think about what my age is.

One of the few times that I’m confronted by my age a lot is on dating apps. I don’t believe in lying about my age on there because the truth will be revealed at some point. And if a guy lies to me about his age, I know it’s an innocent lie, but it makes me wonder what other lies he has told me. So I’m honest with my age and if anyone wants to judge me on that, that’s their problem. I don’t see my age while on dating apps that often because I only see it when I’m looking at my own profile. But I do like to look at it right before and then on my birthday because it shows the new age. And that’s usually the first time I will see my new age out there.

And I know that being 38 for a few days shouldn’t feel that different from the entire time I was 37. But I don’t feel like I was ever 37 since I spent most of that year not doing much or seeing others. Obviously, I know it doesn’t work that way, but I feel like I am still owed time from being 36 since the last half of that age was isolated at home.

I haven’t felt my age for a long time, so I know it’s not just becuase of the pandemic. But I think the last year and a half being at home made me feel even less like my age. I know I will still have to think about my age when someone asks me or if I am filling out a form. And maybe I’ll be like this the rest of my life. But even though I forget my own age and don’t feel it most of the time, I do still celebrate being 38. Aging isn’t something everyone gets to do and it is something to be celebrated!

A Busy Birthday (or I’m Not Sure What I Expected My Birthday To Be Like)

Yesterday was my birthday, and I knew it wasn’t going to be anything too crazy. It was on a Monday, we are still in a pandemic, and I had to work. I figured it would be a bit different from my birthday last year since things are a bit better right now, but I still wasn’t going to be going out and celebrating. At least not on my actual birthday. But that didn’t mean I wasn’t going to enjoy my birthday however I could.

My day started off with my workout. I’ll do a recap of my birthday workout next week, but it was a good workout.

I don’t think I ever believed that I would be someone who would do a workout at 6:30 am on my birthday, but that’s exactly what I did! I’ve done birthday workouts before and it’s always a nice way to enjoy the day. And this time is was the perfect way to start off my day!

Then I had work for my day job. Monday was the first day I had my new, longer work schedule. It’s not too bad so far, but I know that it might be adjusted if it becomes too much. But at least for kicking it off, it was ok. I had a lot of work I had to get done, but it’s what I’ve been doing before and now I had more time to get all my work done.

And while I was working, I was getting texts and messages from friends and family wishing me a happy birthday. Even though I wasn’t going to see any of them, I still love getting messages from them. And my friend Dani, who moved away from LA a few months ago, messaged me and also asked when I’d be home because something was going to be delivered to my house. I let her know when I had a break and I thought that she was having food or something delivered to my house.

I was so shocked when my doorbell rang, I opened the door, and it was Dani and her new puppy!

I was speechless. All I could say for a few minutes was “oh my god!” and other exclamations like that. She was in LA for some work stuff and decided to not tell me so she could surprise me! And it was the best surprise! I was not expecting to see her or any of my other friends on my birthday and it really made my day! And I’ve missed our hangouts since she moved away, so it was nice to have a little time to hangout and chat before she had to leave and I had to get back to work.

The rest of my birthday was pretty low-key. I worked a few more hours, I did some stuff for my union election, and after work I ordered in some dinner (I figured I should do something nicer for dinner) and watched some tv. Nothing too crazy after work since I didn’t feel like trying to go out to a restaurant or organize anything else. I will have a birthday dinner coming up this weekend, but it didn’t feel right doing much else since things are still not that safe.

Overall, this was a great birthday. I didn’t do a lot, but so much of it made my day feel so special. I didn’t have a plan for what my day would be like, but I wouldn’t have guessed this. But it was exactly what I needed and besides wishing we weren’t in a pandemic, I don’t know if I would have changed a thing. It was the perfect Monday Pandemic Birthday.

A Celebration Challenge (or Focusing On The Good and Positive)

It’s officially my birthday month! It doesn’t really feel like August, but then again it hasn’t felt like normal times for almost a year and a half now. But it is a new month and that means I have a new challenge to work on.

My challenge last month was to take more risks with my clothes and to rediscover more outfits and maybe add to what I have. And when I wrote that challenge, I honestly thought things were going to continue to get better and more events would be happening. But that wasn’t the case. I didn’t have a lot of things to attend or hangouts with friends. I did have a few things I went out to do and I was trying new outfits or to make my clothes fit differently. I also went through my closet to take a real inventory of what I own and what I might want. Unfortunately, all the online shopping that I did ended up not fitting so they had to be returned. But I’ve still got my list of what I’d like to add so I can keep searching for them either online or in stores when I’m shopping in stores again. And I’m going to continue to go out of my comfort zone with clothes when I have the chance to. It’s just that right now, there aren’t that many chances. But I’m hoping that will change soon.

Since it’s my birthday month and we are back in a bit of an uncertain time in the pandemic, I had to think about what I could do for my challenge that doesn’t depend on much outside of myself. I know I could do more projects around my house, but I’ve done so many of those. I really wanted to find something that would make me happy, even if I can’t celebrate my birthday again this year.

And that’s why I’ve decided to challenge myself to celebrate anything and everything this month. Obviously, I’m going to celebrate my birthday because getting a year older is something to celebrate. But I also want to celebrate the little things. If I have an exceptionally good workout, I want to celebrate that. If I have a good food day, I should celebrate that. If I don’t do something dumb that I was considering, that should be celebrated too. Even though I’m not able to celebrate a lot of things I normally would, I can still celebrate so much in my life. And I think that’s the perfect thing to do this month.

Celebrating the things in my life doesn’t have to be a big deal. But I should recognize when I have something to celebrate and at least remind myself that it’s a good thing. Even if I had to spend this entire month isolated in my house, there are still positives in my life. And when right now it seems like a lot of us, myself included, are focusing on the setbacks of what we recently lost it’s good to remember all the things to celebrate and be grateful for.

And hopefully by the end of this month, I will be focused much more on the good in my life and celebrating what I can. Because that is always important, even when the world seems so crazy around us.

A Big Family Day! (or A Birthday Party and Meeting Presley)

This past weekend was my nephew Rory’s first birthday! It’s so crazy to think that it’s already been a year since he was born, but then again it was one of the craziest years of almost anyone’s life with the pandemic. But even with the pandemic, I knew that there would be a small party for Rory to celebrate his birthday. Plus, we had to celebrate my niece Presley being born!

The birthday party was just going to be family. My parents and my sister-in-law’s parents have all been vaccinated. The day of the party was going to be 1 day before I was considered fully vaccinated (which is pretty close to being there). And my brother was vaccinated at the end of last year. So even though we all still have to be careful and cautious, this was a pretty safe gathering since everyone except my sister-in-law and the babies would be vaccinated.

I got to Santa Barbara as Rory was opening his gifts. He got a lot of really adorable things. I got him a set of fabric tents and tunnels that can be used by themselves or combined to make a bunch of different things. He seemed curious about them, but I’m sure the gift will be a bigger hit with him when he’s a little older. I think his favorite gift was the kid cleaning kit that my sister-in-law found for him!

I hadn’t seen Rory in a while, so I had no clue if he’d remember me or not. And he takes some time to warm up to people, so I knew that he might not want me to be super near him. And my guess was correct. He wasn’t upset by me being there, but he didn’t want me to hold him or help him with toys. But that was ok because I had my new niece to hold!

Presley is about 6 weeks old and she’s very tiny! And she stayed asleep almost the entire time I was there, so she was calm and quiet. I think she looks a little like Rory did when he was born. She’s got the same long fingers as Rory, so I wonder if they will both be piano players one day. And I thought she was super cute and adorable. Hopefully, the next time I’m in Santa Barbara she will be a bit more awake and alert. And I can’t wait to see what her little personality will be like.

The birthday party was a very low-key day. After Rory was done opening presents, my brother cooked burgers on the grill and we all ate lunch outside. It was fun getting to hang out with my family and I hadn’t seen my sister-in-law’s parents in a while. I was supposed to see them this past November, but I missed that trip to see everyone since that’s when I got vertigo. I haven’t had a lot of social time with people lately, so any meals I get to have with someone is great. And having it be with family makes it that much better!

And of course, Rory had to have a birthday cake. I joked that he was going to act like their cat and push the cake over the edge of his highchair tray. And that’s exactly what he tried to do! I don’t know if he was trying to get more frosting or what, but it was really silly. And of course, we all took a ton of photos of him with frosting all over his face. The cake wasn’t Cookie Monster themed, but I joked that the photos looked like he ate Cookie Monster.

And of course, I had to get a photo of Rory with my brother and sister-in-law.

After he was done smashing his cake and eating some of it, Rory was having a bit of a sugar crash and it was time for him to take a nap. Since he was going to be sleeping and Presley was still asleep, that pretty much was the end of the party. So I went with my parents over to the rental house they were staying at so I could see Tucker since he was at the house during the party.

Tucker was as silly and goofy as always. He is finally recovered from his knee surgeries, so it was great to see him running and bouncing around without him being in pain. But he also looked a lot older this time because he now has a ton of white fur on his face. It’s like he became an old man overnight! But he still has so much energy and he was so happy to see me there.

I spent some time hanging out with my parents and the dog outside before I headed out. I actually had something else to do that afternoon in Santa Barbara (more about that tomorrow).

I only spent a few hours with my family that day, but it was one of the best days I’ve had in a while. I don’t know how much more often I would be seeing everyone if we didn’t have a pandemic, but this past year has made me appreciate any family time I get at all. And I appreciate having anything to celebrate right now as well. So having 2 things to celebrate with my family really made the day that much better!

A Socially Distant Picnic (or Still Having One Birthday Tradition)

One of my favorite birthday traditions is getting my free (or almost free) birthday dinner with my birthday twin, Joanna. We’ve been doing this birthday dinner for a long time (I think it’s been 10 years since we started, but I’m not sure). It’s so much fun and something that both of us look forward to. We aren’t great about getting together to see each other that often due to our weird schedules and not living super close together, but this is one of the times we always make sure we make time to get together.

When the pandemic started, I didn’t think too much about our birthday dinner. Honestly, I really thought things would be back to normal by August. And as time went on, I got a bit distracted by everything else to think too much about the birthday dinner. And then I got the email from Truxton’s for their birthday club and I realized I needed to think about what to do. I knew inside the restaurant wasn’t open (nor would I be comfortable eating inside a restaurant). So I sent a message to Joanna to see what she thought.

Even though they did have outside seating and the tables were being moved far apart, neither of us felt ready to eat at a restaurant. Fortunately, Truxton’s does take-out too and we could use our birthday club discount for that! So last week, we placed an order for take-out (I ordered the appetizer and my meal and Joanna ordered her meal and the dessert) and we met up for our birthday meal! There is a park only a few blocks from the restaurant that had some shade and very few people, so we turned our dinner into a picnic!

We both had our own picnic blankets and Joanna found a plastic tablecloth we could put between the blankets. We were cautious to keep a distance between us since you can’t really keep a mask on while eating. But neither of us have really gone anywhere in a while, so that also helped us both feel safer seeing each other. We split the appetizer and dessert up with a knife and fork and each had our own plates (again, provided by Joanna). And we each had our own entrees and that was easy to eat out of the take-out container.

Yes, it was fun to have an almost free birthday dinner. I think we each paid around $5 and we each left a $10 tip (the meals would have been $25 without the discount). This is a tradition that brings us both so much joy. And it was nice to be outside for a while because I haven’t done that in a while. But the best part of this was getting to hang out with a friend.

I have seen people I know maybe 6 times since March. I’ve seen my family twice. I had 2 friends who did grocery runs for me when I couldn’t go. And I had my friend drop off hair color twice. I’ve seen friends on Zoom, but for in-person interactions, I believe those are the only 6 times I’ve seen people I know in 5 months. That’s not a lot. I am not used to feeling so alone and isolated from my friends. And I know some of this is due to my own fears because I could have met up with friends in a park before. But like I’ve said before, it’s hard to figure out the balance of what is safe and what is too much of a risk.

So getting to hang out with Joanna for about 2 hours was amazing! Of course, we had our usual catch-up discussion. And we talked about how we are both coping with things right now. But I think the random things we talked about made me the happiest. Having those everything and nothing conversations are things that you don’t always get with a virtual hangout. It did feel weird to be even 6 feet away from someone without a mask on, but it also was nice to have a moment where I could feel like it was my old life again.

We ended up hanging out in that park much longer than either of us expected. I think we both needed that time together. And we were saying how we hope that somehow things will work out so we can have our cheesecake outing this winter, but we have no idea about that. I can’t imagine when we can go to a restaurant again. But maybe we could do another take-out picnic?

I’m so glad that we found a way to keep our birthday tradition alive. I know it’s not the most important thing to do and it’s probably frivolous with everything else going on in the world. But it was nice to take a break from all the tough things I’ve been dealing with to have a moment of fun with a friend and some good food!

A Quarantine Birthday (or Just A Normal Sunday)

My birthday was this past Sunday. I’m a big birthday person and love to be able to celebrate my birthday and other’s birthdays. I’m not always great about planning birthday parties for myself, but I usually do at least something around my birthday to celebrate. And this year, I was hoping to do the same.

When the safer at home orders started, nobody expected it to last this long. I remember earlier this summer they were saying that things would start reopening up and being safe by the 4th of July. And when I heard that, I started thinking about what I might want to do for my birthday. I wasn’t thinking of planning anything big, but I started to think about if I wanted to do another night at a bar or something like that. But I didn’t start planning anything because I knew things could change and I didn’t want to plan something that wouldn’t be able to happen.

And some restaurants are open for outdoor eating and other public places that are open outdoors, but for the most part, things are still closed. And I didn’t want to do a distant hangout at a park with a lot of friends or something like that. So I realized by July that I most likely wouldn’t be doing anything for my birthday. I do have something still planned for later this week (and hopefully that won’t change), but nothing really like I’m used to.

So on my actual birthday, things weren’t that different from most of my Sundays. I did laundry. I cleaned my house and did other chores. I wrote a blog post. I tried to make a plan for things for the week. Nothing exciting at all. I did order delivery food, which is something I’m trying to do less often, so that was something special. And of course, I got a lot of texts, messages on social media, and phone calls from family and friends.

I think my favorite call was from my brother and sister-in-law because it was a FaceTime call with Rory! He seemed very interested in the phone and I think he could tell it was a person on the screen. He kept coming really close to the phone and it felt like Attack of the 50 Foot Baby!

That was so much fun and I loved getting to see my nephew! It made me smile and made the day feel special. And it did help to break up a day that didn’t feel that different from most of my Sundays. And my Sundays don’t feel that different from most of my days except for some of the chores I do on Sundays only. So anything to make the day feel different is a big treat and makes me very happy.

I had a friend ask me if I feel any different being 37 than I did being 36, and honestly, I don’t. I don’t normally feel different, but this year feels even more the same as always. I joked that I feel the same as I did back in March because it doesn’t seem like life as moved since safer at home started. I feel like my life has paused and nothing has progressed. And in some ways, that’s true. I don’t hate getting older, but in some ways, I do wish that I could have paused my age this year too.

For about half of being 36, I couldn’t do much of what I wanted to do with my life. I feel like that was lost and wasted time. I know I can’t judge myself against who I used to be before the pandemic, but it’s still hard. So I’m trying to just appreciate what I did get done while I was 36. And as far as what I plan on doing while I’m 37, my main focus is staying healthy. And that probably means staying home by myself a lot. But losing this time means I will be alive in the future. And that’s what’s most important. And hopefully, things will be better before I turn 38 and I can accomplish some great things this year.

Feeling Like Something Is Missing (or I Guess This Is Part Of The Grief Process)

Today should be my grandma’s birthday. Her birthday was something that I celebrated with her almost every year because it is so close to Thanksgiving. The tradition in my family used to be celebrating her birthday either the day before or the day after Thanksgiving with a nice dinner out. Those dinners are so clear in my memory because they were such a big tradition. I loved having that extra time to celebrate with my family since we only really get together for Thanksgiving as an extended family.

Both of my grandparents passed away about a month before their birthdays, so I went through this with my grandpa’s death as well. But because I didn’t really celebrate his birthday with him, it didn’t hit me as hard as this is hitting me. I really feel like I’m forgetting to do something and that I will need to somehow catch up. Fortunately, I remembered to turn off the alarm on my calendar to buy my grandma’s birthday card so I didn’t have that alert about a week ago. But I still feel like I should be going to the store to find the perfect card for her.

My grandma loved butterflies so almost every single card I ever got for her had butterflies on them. I tried hard to always find birthday and Mother’s Day cards that were themed with butterflies or had one on there somewhere. It seems like it’s a common thing to find on cards, so I always seemed to be able to find them. Sometimes I would find the perfect card for her birthday months in advance and I’d get it and save it. I know that my grandma loved those cards and cherished them. I don’t know if any of my cousins ever got my grandma the same card, but I’m guessing that since there aren’t a ton of grandma cards with butterflies that it happened at least once.

I missed my grandma’s birthday dinner last year because it was done the night I flew in for Thanksgiving. It was sad to miss that dinner, but I understood why it had to be that night. That felt weird enough for me, but I knew I’d get to spend some time over the next few days with my grandma to make up for it. And she understood why I wasn’t able to fly in earlier for it. I was thinking that maybe this year would be similar to last year and I would just have a feeling of missing out. But it’s harder than that for me.

I’ve shared how grieving the loss of my grandma has been taking me time to get through. I’m not trying to rush myself through the grieving process and I’m allowing myself to take the time I need and not feel weird that it’s not over. There are things that are very different for me with this death compared to other deaths in my life.

When comparing this loss with the loss of my grandpa, I was much closer to my grandma. I knew I could depend on her and it’s a loss not to have that. I also have watched my grandma decline for several years, compared to my grandpa passing away a bit more suddenly. I would think watching someone decline would make it easier to accept, but I think I just assumed she would continue that path for a bit longer. Even though it was hard to watch her become a shadow of who she used to be, there were still moments where I could see the person she was before and it was a nice reminder of who she was when I was little. And I think the way I found out about my grandma’s death has made this a long process. I had to push the sadness away for a few days because I was busy working at the convention.

I’m sure that I’m going to struggle a bit for a little longer. I’m already expecting Thanksgiving to be tough for me and my family. And I’m a bit more prepared now for having random moments of sadness and grief when I can’t figure out what exactly caused it. When I had those last month, they really took me by surprise and I didn’t exactly know what to do with them. Now that I’ve experienced it, I still will be a bit unsure what to do but they won’t be as shocking or surprising.

Being sad on my grandma’s birthday was something I was more prepared for. There are a few other dates in the future that I’m ready to struggle through. But knowing that they are coming doesn’t necessarily make them easier. I just hope that time will help the sadness be a bit less and allow me to celebrate my grandma’s incredible life on those days and not focus on the loss.

Belated Birthday Dinner (or We Don’t Mind It’s Not Totally Free Anymore)

I haven’t done much for my birthday this year. I don’t mind that I haven’t been celebrating like I thought I would because I’ve had other things taking up my time. I am hoping to maybe do some birthday things next month, but I don’t know if I’ll be motivated to do them by the time things calm down. If I don’t really celebrate my birthday, it’s not the worst thing. While I love celebrating my birthday and it’s one of my favorite things, having an off-year is to be expected. And this August has been extremely busy for me and I just couldn’t put my focus on my birthday.

I usually take advantage of several birthday freebies as well. Many of them have to be done on your actual birthday and I have to skip most of those. But the things that are for your birthday week or month are things I usually do. But just like with celebrating, I haven’t really taken advantage of that this year. I haven’t even gone to Sephora for the birthday freebie (which most women would agree is the one birthday thing everyone seems to do). But there is one birthday freebie that I prioritize over all others and that’s going to my birthday dinner at Truxton’s with my birthday twin Joanna!

The birthday dinner deal has changed over the years. It started as a free entree and free dessert for each of us. Then it was $20 free for each of us and they would combine them on one check. Now it’s still $20 free for each of us, but they have to split the checks. Because of that, we no longer can have a completely free birthday meal. But we know that and expect that so it’s ok. We still are having an almost free meal and the best part of the tradition is our hangout anyway.

Because of all the work I have been doing for the election and some family that Joanna had in town, it was tough for us to find a time that worked for both of us. But we were able to find time this past weekend so we didn’t miss getting our dinner in before the deal ended since the requirement is that it just has to be during your birthday month.

We had a pretty routine meal for us. We had the monkey bread like we always do, we both had a burger, and we split the cookie ice cream dessert. It was delicious as always and the perfect birthday meal. And just like always we had lots of fun and random stories to tell each other. We did talk a lot about the election since things have been a bit crazy with that and she has been seeing the stories in the news. And we both had some random dating stories to share. Although I think she might have had a crazier story than mine with a guy that basically through a temper tantrum after he had a medical issue and she was worried about him. I don’t think either of us will ever understand why some guys act out that crazy when they don’t need to act out or react at all.

We also both talked about how neither of us did much for our birthdays this year. We might be able to do something together later as a late birthday celebration, which would be nice since we rarely do a big birthday thing together. But even if we don’t manage to get that organized, I’m so glad we did get our birthday dinner in. It’s one of my favorite birthday traditions and I love how much we both look forward to it. And it’s been one of the main ways I’ve been able to celebrate my birthday this year.

Almost Getting My Lazy Birthday (or Staying In And Staying Busy)

My goal for my birthday was to be able to do nothing and to finally relax a little bit. Life has been stressful (but good stressful for once) and I have been hitting burnout a lot lately. I knew that if I didn’t take a break for myself soon, I was going to hit a really bad breaking point and I didn’t know what would happen if I got there. I don’t know if I would hit a really bad low and it would take a long time to get out of it or if something worse would happen. I just knew that I didn’t want to get there so I had to try to do whatever I could to prevent that.

On my actual birthday, all I had scheduled was my workout and then work. I said I had a plan to try to do nothing but I wasn’t sure if that was going to be able to be accomplished. For the next week and a half, my life isn’t completely mine. I have to work hard for my slate for the union election and I am so proud to get to do that. And I know that when it is done it will be worth it. But that also means that I might start the day with one plan and then an hour later a huge amount of work gets thrown my way and I end up spending the rest of the day working on that.

My birthday wasn’t as crazy as it could have been, but it did get pretty busy. I had several things that I had to work on that were needing to be done quickly. If I could put things off to the next day (or a few days later), I did. But some things had to be done that day or that hour and I had to get them done. When people called me to wish me a happy birthday, I was usually on the phone for only a few minutes before I had to get off the phone and back to work. I felt bad that I couldn’t talk to people longer, but everyone understood how hard I was working and how important this election is for me.

I finally got to relax a bit around 7 pm that night. I spent most of the evening laying in bed just being lazy. I needed to decompress and I didn’t feel like doing much of anything. I read a little bit. I watching some random YouTube videos on my phone. I did some random daydreaming and reflecting on my birthday and my life. There were a few moments where I was feeling a bit lonely since besides my workout I spent my birthday alone. But I also made that choice and I know that if I spent my birthday with other people that it would have been overwhelming. I needed the alone time to recover and do some self-care. It was the best thing for me that day.

It wasn’t the most celebratory birthday day, but it was exactly what I needed to do. I had a lot of work that I had to get done, and I got the relaxing time that I desperately needed. I still want to have some sort of birthday event, but I don’t know when that will happen or if it will happen. I can’t imagine it happening before the election is done, which isn’t until the end of the month. And by then, I might not feel like doing anything too big. I had big plans for what I wanted to do, but I think that motivation got zapped out of me. I’m a little annoyed that I didn’t plan it sooner so I could have done it, but maybe I’ll feel motivated again when I’m not as crazy busy every day.