Tag: birthday

Birthday Eve Wisdom

Tomorrow, I turn 41. Driving home in the rain this evening, I was trying to decide if I was any wiser than I was on the eve of my last birthday.

In the last year, I’ve had to muster courage, lots of it. I’ve had to ponder what it means to truly forgive, and what is unconditional love and what is real friendship. My decision-making has been much more for me and a lot less for pleasing others: doesn’t always make me popular, but it feels better.

Maybe I’m not wiser, but I am making progress.

For the year ahead, I’d like to keep aiming high for the life I want while enjoying the life I have.

Do Something Kind

My birthday is this week. I won’t lie: I love cake and presents, so yes, those are welcome and appreciated.

A few years ago, I was having a really painful time personally and professionally around my birthday. I was very sad and feeling incredibly discouraged, and on top of that, I was sick with an infected tooth that needed surgery, so I was a mess.

Somewhere I saw a quote that said something like the best way to lift yourself up is to do something kind for another. I took the quote to heart and did some kindnesses where I could for my birthday to see if it would indeed lift me up from the gloom. I paid for a stranger’s meal at IHOP. I left quarters in the vending machines at the front of the grocery store in hopes that some kid would be delighted by the prospect of free gumballs. I picked up trash in front of my neighbor’s house. I pushed shopping carts into the corral at Wal-Mart and K-Mart. I put candy in my coworkers’ mailboxes. I did all of these things in stealth mode, because most of the glee was coming from the excitement of doing this in secret!

Did all these special efforts help my mood? Absolutely. I felt happy, and I felt glad knowing I was making a difference in the world, that my kindness mattered. This became my birthday tradition, and I have since asked others to join in and do something nice in my honor.

If you’re reading this, I’m asking you to do something deliberately kind. I say “deliberately” because I’m sure you already try to make the world a better place and are nice by habit. Choose something new to do outside your existing habits of kindness, and be mindfully, deliberately kind for my birthday. Spread kindness: that’s my birthday wish.

My Birthday is Coming, My Birthday is Coming

My birthday is coming.

Well, it’s in September.

And it’s July now…

But I am excited nonetheless!

First, I love parties.  This year has been a speck lean financially so far, and I haven’t been able to throw my usual parties.  Apparently no one else throws parties (or they don’t invite me?!?), so I miss having everyone gathered in an environment of fun and food and socializing.

Second on the list: cake.  Birthdays mean cake usually.  Last year, somehow there was no cake and I was a tad dismayed…I baked my own the year before, which was also somewhat disappointing.  Part of the excitement of cake is that someone that enough of you to make or buy a cake in your honor.  They were thinking of me! So, I will shake off the lack of cake love from the last two years and know that this year there will be cake.

Third: I love cards.  Handmade or store-bought, that part doesn’t matter, because I care what note is scribbled inside.  What did someone write down for me, to me??  I have been known to hoard cards from years past because they are so dear.  Nice Facebook posts are also appreciated.

Fourth: presents are good! I like presents.  I like to be thought of, but I can always tell the difference between a gift of love and a gift of “oh for fuck’s sake, it’s her birthday, here’s a thing in a bag.”  It’s not about the price.  It’s about the thought, about the love.  The obligatory thing in a bag actually hurts my feelings quite a lot.  Think of me with love or kiss my ass.

Fifth reason to be excited about my birthday: I’m still alive to celebrate!  That’s pretty magical and glorious.

Sixth thing: it means Halloween is coming soon! I get my Halloween decorations out in time for my birthday because I love Halloween as much as my birthday.

Seventh reason on this list: I can celebrate my birthday for the entire month of September.  Says who? Says me.  I write the rules of my life, and September is my birthday month so I accept lunch dates, presents and treats all month long.

bday wishes

‘Round this time o’ year we wish our JDDog a very happy birthday…and soon, same to Uncle Lane.

It’s important to not just wish them a happy bday, but thank them for this blog…once upon a time, JDDog, Uncle Lane, and Uncle Doogie gave me a forum for my words on FreakinAsheville.com…now, they never said I was any good, mind you, but they gave me a space and said “do your thing.” And words are my thing.  They gave me a corner of the world wide web and let me spew my randomness…and when FreakinAsheville was no more, JDDog kept me truckin’ on a new domain.

Even though they are the ones with the birthdays, they gave me the gift: the gift of doing my thing.  I know now that read or unread, writing a decade of words has kept me sane.  A place to write, a space to fill, has been my life raft in some dark times and my playground on happy days.  Thanks, thanks, thanks…and happy birthday.

 

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thankful for a good birthday weekend…

After last year’s birthday debacle, most anything was an improvement…but I had a good birthday and I had a good birthday weekend, too.

There were Jager shots with “Van Helsing” and “From Dusk Till Dawn” and conversation about anything and everything…and that’s just the best.  Time spent laughing and goofing off can’t be bought, and it’s the best stuff ever.

This coming weekend will hopefully bring more of the same because there can never be enough.  The “Where My Girls At” ladies only 40th bday celebration this Saturday should be awesome.  Cheers!

bday project 2013 still underway

I think I’m going to make an effort to spread kindness for my birthday month!  Little things, simple things.  Mindful kindness, not just the automatic knee jerk reflex politeness.

I’ve put away weights at the gym for others.  Pushed in grocery carts.  Left candy in the kitchen at work…which was funny, because shortly thereafter, someone brought me candy from the kitchen!  Thank you notes to some people who made a difference in  my life.

This is good stuff, so I want to keep going.

Got the date changed yet?

Dear Mr. Dog,

Thank you for suggesting to Mrs. Dog that you change your wedding anniversary date to any other day in the calendar year other than September 5.  I appreciate your clear understanding that it was my birthday long before you and the Mrs. wed, and that the celebration of your nuptials year after year is in direct conflict with the celebration of memememememememe ME and my birthday.

In preparation for the reaction of Mrs. Dog, I have an extra pitcher of green Kool Aid chilling in the fridge so you will have something to drink when you have been kicked out of your abode for the rest of the day.  Please stop for Little Debbies on the way over.

Love, unicorns and daisies,

Kat

my very special friends

The photos I took at my own birthday soiree weren’t all that great, I’m told.  Everyone is all blurry and obviously the camera angle is all crooked…and yeah, yeah, I’ve heard that I must have been so sloshed to take such horrible pictures.

It’s truth time.  It’s time to come clean about those photos, time to come clean about my friends in those photos.  I can’t be silent about this anymore.

Here’s the 411, I hope you can handle the reality, it’s pretty harsh: those photos, all those blurry photos I took from my birthday party…you need to stop making fun of them right now. 

The facts are not that I was so sloshed I couldn’t take a proper photo; instead, the cold truth is that all my friends are blurry around the edges.  That’s right:  All my friends are blurry.  Some of my friends are even askew and off center.  So what?  I’m ok with that!  There was nothing wrong with me or my camera at my birthday party, and darn it, there’s nothing wrong with my friends, my blurry fuzzy hard to recognize friends.  Blurry people are people, too, with feelings, hopes and dreams!  I won’t have anymore blurry bashing; if you can’t be open minded enough to accept the blurry people in my life, you just need to move on, man, move on…

birthday

Good birthday so far.  Got my first birthday kind thoughts in my email inbox at 12:12 AM (yes, I know, I shoulda been sleeping, tell me something I don’t already know), and it’s been all good since, but I have been so well celebrated with food that I might explode!  Gawd bless T for bringing my favorite juice smoothie AND a bendy straw this morning.  Warm cookies.  Breakfast casserole.  Haven’t even gotten into the banana split fixin’s I was generously gifted with today, and dinner awaits, too.  I’m so thrilled at being thought of this year, just giddy about it.  Karaoke and paintball tomorrow…come one, come all, let me shoot at you and sing horribly off key (but with enthusiasm) to you…