And, Thus, It Begins

Today is my 43rd birthday.

The final day of the 43rd year of my life and the start of the 44th. (Really. If you do the math, that's how it works out. After all, you don't turn one until the end of your first year. So that means you turn 43 at the end of your 43rd year.)

One year ago, I celebrated my birthday at Disneyland with Christopher as part of a trip out to Los Angeles to visit my sisters and their families. We spent the week driving all over the LA area, as I tried to give Christopher a good cross-section of what LA has to offer. And, of course, Disneyland - on my birthday - was part of that.

In the past year, life has been - mostly - pretty good. My job (no matter how much I complain about it) became full-time. I took not one, but two, trips to New York City - one of which included seeing the now much-Tony-award-nominated "A Little Night Music" - and both of which included good times with great friends. And I got to drive home to my hometown for some time completely away from the outside world.

We've had friends (and family) come to town for visits. We've spent time with family and friends who were already here. And we've gotten to reconnect with some people we hadn't seen in a really long time, but wish we could see more of.

We've also had to let some friendships slide as times and lives changed. We've had to pare down a bit as we've dealt with my less-than-stellar income and almost-non-existent vacation time. But that hasn't stopped us from dreaming.

There have been cocktails, and French cheeses, and showtunes, and movie nights, and brunches, and dinners, and roadtrips, and haircuts, and trips to the garden store, and trivia nights, and phonecalls, and blog posts, and loud times, and quiet moments.

I may not have figured out the Ultimate Question during my year of 42, but as I start my year of 43, I'm okay with that.

Now, where's the cake?