{30 days} of thankful : day 27

i decided yesterday that if i am ever an employer, i will give everyone 2 hours off on their birthday to sleep in, take a leisurely lunch, or go home early. wouldn't that be awesome?! everyone would love working for me. sadly, i did not get those 2 hours off yesterday, and lets agree: monday is a disappointing day for your birthday to land on. {let's hear it for 2016, when i'll once again have a weekend birthday!}

i'll quit my complaining, because despite working yesterday, it turned out to be a sweet + fun day. i walked in to an office with happy birthday balloons covering the floor, thanks to my kind co-workers. they also took me out to a quick lunch, which i appreciated, despite the awkwardness of interacting outside of work for the first time and hearing them reminisce about turning 40, 50, & 60. birthdays also make me thankful for facebook, and receiving wishes from people who span all 6 cities i've inhabited. i opened sweet cards and presents from my parents & in-laws. {thanks, mom, for scouring the closets to find a gift you forgot to ever give me 20 years ago... ha!}

and then it turns out that monday may not be such a poor day for a birthday - mondays are half-off bottles of wine at The Local !!! the fun table of 3 older ladies next to us effused birthday wishes {they were so friendly & personable, i seriously thought they might simultaneously hug me & try my food}. and then a friend we ran into there bought us a dessert: blackberry cobbler with house-made blueberry ice cream, oh yes! a perfectly sweet ending to the day / birthday weekend.

it occurred to me the other day that my next big birthday will be 40. whaaaa? that is crazy, and was nearly cause for an age-related freak out, which i am generally not prone to having. and then i thought back to turning 20, which feels like a lifetime ago, and reflected briefly over the last decade. a lot happened in these past 10 years: surviving and graduating college, becoming a vegetarian, hiking my way through the Yukon for a summer, moving to Branson and working at Doulos for 3 years, learning to snowboard, traveling to Europe, moving to Asheville, harvesting grapes at a vineyard for work, meeting my husband, watching one of my sisters get married, meeting my precious nephew. I moved again, starting & finishing graduate school, got married, moved to Virginia and started working, supported my husband in grad school, and carved out a life & community for us. in there were moments of joy & heartache, getting lost in new cities & then learning the shortcuts, and lots of figuring out who i am and growing more comfortable with the person i am & the hope of who i am becoming.

my mom shared that she thinks each year will just keep getting better for me. i think she's right.