Tuesday, June 9, 2009

XXXI

Tomorrow is my birthday and it will be my 31st!  Here is my 1st birthday, when my mom made me a sweet little doll and I ate a birthday banana with a candle in it:


And my 11th birthday, when I had just finished my first year of being homeschooled and enjoyed wearing very large glasses and even larger bows:


And I couldn't find a picture of my actual 21st birthday, but here is one from right around then:


There is Kool-Aid in those wine glasses and we are all holding pretzels.  No, really.  This is me (on the left) and my roommates from my last 2 years of college, and the summer I turned 21 between my junior and senior years we all stayed in College Station to take summer classes or do research in a lab or whatever. One of my roommates turned 21 a couple of weeks after me and I have a bunch of pictures of her 21st birthday (complete with the cake I baked her) but none of my own.  Several weeks before this picture was taken, I had postponed my upcoming wedding (to someone other than Rob) from the following Christmas to the next summer and I would call off my engagement altogether a few months after this picture was taken.  My fiance was, I think, a little hurt that I chose to stay in College Station that summer rather than return to Fort Worth where he and my parents lived, and probably rightfully so.  That summer my roommates and I watched Casablanca and the original Solaris in Russian and went to Bible study at our church and I baked a lot of pies for our consumption.  I worked in a laser optics lab in the physics department and joined the campus improv comedy troupe. We thought it was really funny (well, I still do) to take carefully composed pictures with props, preferably on black and white film.  Gosh, I was happy then (aside from the whole relationship thing).  Really, exuberantly, goofily happy.

And today on the brink of my 31st birthday I find myself again very happy with my life.  Tomorrow I am going to go to lunch with my parents and Grace and Violet at a really delicious Thai place and then I will go get a pedicure while the girls stay at my parents' house.  Rob will be working late-ish so we will do a combined birthday-anniversary celebration this coming weekend where I believe we will break open a bottle of red wine (I choose not to put Kool-Aid in my wine glasses anymore) and try to do pizza outside on the grill.  Hooray for birthdays!

6 comments:

amydove said...

Happy Birthday! And really, a birthday banana? The best part about little baby birthdays is letting them go to town on a very messy cake!

Emily said...

Happy birthday! And anniversary, too!

I had a big glasses and big bow stage myself. I hope all the photos someday get lost in a fire. I've asked my mom before why she let me do that!

Our anniversary is next Monday and William is going to play with the neighbors while Cam and I go out on a date for the first time in YEARS.

Unknown said...

happy birthday and anniversary!!!

frankly, i'm shocked that you didnt mention anything about jane austen ;)

Kiki said...

Happy Birthday!

angie.a said...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!! Even though< i'm a day late.... I hope you had a wonderful day, and are STILL celebrating!

Kimberly said...

Oh happy birthday. Late.
:-)
Mine is this week and I am also going to get a pedicure. Though I am taking the small fry with me. And then I may sit in a coffee shop and read a book to wait out the time of the babysitter.

And after Thursday? Am going on WW or something again. Seriously. I have one year to do something about this weight problem. ONE YEAR!