28??

Today was my birthday!  I was 23...I mean...28.  I can't believe I am 28.  I remember the typical school counselor exercise where the counselor would have us think about how we wanted our life to be in 10 years to encourage decisions about college plans.  Well, I never really knew exactly what I wanted.  I wanted to have a family and a house and my dream job but I didn't know what that was.  Well, I have a house that I hardly get to spend a night at and a job that is not a dream.  I don't think there is any job that is my dream job, unless someone wants to offer me a position designing and then experimenting with quilting fabric or working in a wedding dress store that pays $30 an hour and is never opened on weekends.   I guess the "get my life together" deadline will have to jump ahead another 10 years because it doesn't seem very close right now.  

I was trying to remember how I felt about turning 18 ten short years ago.  I don't think I really cared.  The 2000 presidential election happened when I was still 17, so that priviledge was going to have to wait until I was 21.  I am not and never have been a tobacco user so that didn't really matter to me.  North Dakota didn't have the lottery yet so that was not an issue either.  I guess it was fun to try gambling in casinos!  Also, I could have consumed alcohol in Canada but I didn't cross the border for that purpose until I was in college.  I know I was looking forward to high school ending in a few weeks, going to NDSU, and spending the summer doing whatever I wanted and not scheduling my work hours around anything having to do with basketball. 

Here are a few funny old pictures.  I do it to everyone else, so I am not going to let myself off the hook. 


Tiny baby!  I think I was about six weeks old at my baptism.  That dress was made for me by my grandmother, and my siblings and cousins wore it as well.  It is still around somewhere.  I love my dad's three-piece suit. 

This is a prophetic photo!  The headphones and music players are much smaller but I was probably listening to something I might enjoy today such as Bruce Springsteen!  That brown couch is still serving its purpose at my brother's apartment and it needs to be dragged out to the driveway and set on fire. 

My mom and my grandma always made shape cakes like this one.  That was, I think, my 5th birthday and it happened to land on Easter.  That god awful sweatshirt I am wearing was sewn by my mom and I loved it.  I think I picked that fabric out myself.  I don't know whose filthy hand is reaching for the cake.  I think it was my sister or my cousin Katie. 

Today was a low key birthday.  I had a few fun surprises.  My parents sent me flowers at work! 

I love the purple vase they came in!  I also love that daffodil.  They are so interesting.

Another fun surprise came this morning.  I had brought a poster to a framing store to be framed and it was not supposed to be done for another week but I got the call that it was ready this morning!  Happy birthday to me!  Also, I had ordered a pair of shoes online a week ago and they showed up at the door!  It was like two birthday presents even though I bought both items for myself. 

My favorite surprise came in a card from my aunt.  She enclosed a letter dated August 1997 that I had sent to my cousins to tell them about one of our cats giving birth to a litter of kittens while I was at a friends' house and my mom was at a meeting.  I remember Andrea calling me at Haley's to tell me about it.  (And no, we did not have indoor cats.  We would let a mother in to have her kittens if we could catch her before it happened so we could tame them as they grew and keep them safe from wild animals like foxes.  It was delightful to come into the yard and see kittens frolicking near the house!  Otherwise they would would give birth in the woods, in the combine header, or any number of places and we would have to go searching for them.  The usual place would be in a box lined with old towels in the basement or the bathroom).  The funny thing about the letter was that my penmanship was a whole lot better in 1997 than it is now.  I never thought it was good then!  It is not very feminine or pretty and has morphed into a cursive/print combination over the years since I left high school that is pretty wierd.

It was a good birthday, although not the most exciting I have had.  That's OK though.  I celebrated over the weekend and I will be able to again next weekend.  And I will enjoy being 28 even though I feel at least five years younger.