MrNepathy's Blog

When I turned 35 I ran a mile faster than I had run it before. On my 36^th birthday I ran farther than I had run prior to that. On my 37^th birthday I tried to sleep late. I had more success with my plans at 35 and 36 because I woke up at just after five o’clock in the morning. Still I stayed in bed for a bit hoping that sleep would carry me back into the Fun House world of the subconscious, but there was no such luck.

My plan for the day was to go for my walk that I normally take on Sundays, get my donuts, walk back home, put my pajamas back on and then shoot things from the comfort of the couch. Mostly I was going to shoot cowboys. Well I did go for a walk and did get donuts, but that’s where the plan halted. I did play a round or two of Modern Warfare 2, which does not feature cowboys, and then I proceeded to clean.

By 11:30 I had cleaned both bathrooms, swept the kitchen, vacuumed upstairs and the living room, did a bit of dusting and had washed my linens and put them back on the bed. Not exactly the most exciting way to spend a birthday, or a day off of work. But the day took off from there and it was important to get the house in order because I was expecting company the next day.

On my 35^th birthday my dad was still alive. The signs of decline were there, but not very prominent, so I was full of hope. On my 36^th birthday I was largely full of confusion, still trying to dig out from under the previous years’ events. On my 37^th birthday I was full of joy.

Despite the first half of the day being occupied with less-than-adequate sleep and cleaning, the second half of the day held promise. I talked to my mom and brother on the phone, and also accidentally learned that my phone has a speaker-phone option. Don’t hold a speaker phone next to your ear, would be my advice. After that I relaxed for a bit, went out for a nice dinner and then went back to relaxing. If nothing else, I can now say I had wild Wahoo in public. Wahoo, in case you’re wondering, is a type of fish.

Saturday I had a migraine. There was no getting around just calling it a headache. It had all of the trappings of one of the more severe headaches I’ve had. If I didn’t have a jacket on I was freezing but if I put one on I was sweltering. My headache became a bit more subdued before the movie started, but all of the other side effects were still in play. Still, even with the headache, the movie and the company afterwards were enjoyable. I made Baked Alaska and so I could cross that off of my Life’s To-Do List. My to-do list is mostly baking projects so far. But I like that because it makes me tackle things. I think the only obstacle between me and a baking project should be cooking equipment. If I have everything I need, then I should try to make anything I fancy. If I don’t have everything I need, then what I want to make should be the inspiration for me to buy the right gear.

And that leads into something more important. I never took New Year’s resolutions seriously. While I think the changing of the year is a good time to make changes in our lives, it’s still an arbitrary date. January 1^st is no more significant to me than March 24^th in terms of what I should be doing with my life. But my birthday? That makes a specific thing. It means I’ve made it one more trip around the sun. Time is a non-renewable resource and celebrating our birth is a better marker than celebrating our calendar. So I think my birthday is a far better time for promising things to myself, which is what I’m doing. Unfortunately this year’s promise is a promise I’ve made before, but it’s also the promise that I need to satisfy more than any other promise. So in the year from 37 to 38, I’m going to try to do it.

In between working on that goal, I’m going to travel to Maryland to visit my mom, I’ll see Star Wars in Concert, try Kobe-style beef (which crosses another thing off my list), go to Florida to see Stormtroopers talk about cookies and see my nephew turn one. I’ll play nerdball with a dozen or so friends, dress up like a fool on Halloween, try not to get killed by a flaming tree on New Year’s Eve and if I’m lucky I’ll find a bit of my Christmas spirit again. I’ll laugh more than I’ll cry and hopefully help you do the same.