Birthdays

"Whenever I have a birthday, I think back over the past year, how I've spent my time, what I've accomplished, what regrets I have, how I've tried to make the world a better place, and what exactly I've been doing with my life over the past 365 days, and I think to myself: 'Man, I wish I'd gotten laid more'."
-Unknown

So for some reason or another, it seems that I've been celebrating a lot of birthdays recently. Partly because I do know a lot of people with October birthdays and also partly because one of those birthdays was my own. I was back in San Diego for the night before my birthday, starting off the night with Jelly Bean (JB), some delivery Chinese food, and the Laker game on TV. JB was a dealing with some kind of cold/flu issue and since I was without My Love (ML), I was kind of looking forward to a relaxed kind of birthday celebration.

I used to both love and dread birthdays so much more. Especially that day before, the last 24 hours of being a certain age. They used to make me so anxious and pensive. Strange as it may seem, the older I get, the more it seems like I have the time to do the things I want to do. Maybe it's because there's just so much less pressure to go out and make the most of every day like when you're young. Maybe it's because I've gained a maturity that makes me enjoy the simple things in life. Maybe it's just the calmness that comes with being in love. Whatever the reason, I spent the day before thinking more about all the things for which I was thankful rather than think about all the things for which I had regret. It was nice.

I ended that night and early morning with Vikey McStoner (VM), sitting around and just shooting the breeze like we did so many nights as medical students. And in the midst of it all was of course a great deal of phone calling to and from ML. I was without her for a whole 9 days and while it was nice to be on vacation, it was hard to be away. Of course I write this now with her a few feet away asleep in our bed and when I think of it now it all seems so silly. For a time there though, it really did take a lot of the flavor out of life being so far away. It feels good to be home, which of course is wherever I'm with her.