Birthdays are overrated

At what point do birthdays lose their magic?

When one is a child, birthdays mean you are the princess for a day. You get to be the centre of attention, get lots of presents, eat cake, and basically get a 'get-out-of-jail-free card for bad behaviour for the day.

When you're a little older, you get birthday parties, trips to Chuck 'E' Cheese, and cards from Grandma in the mail. (we are so important when we start to receive mail!)

When you get to high school and university, a birthday is an excuse to hang out with friends, maybe have a party, go to a club or bar and all your friends buy you drinks. It's a high point of your annual social calendar. Sure, you still do the family thing, but at this point it's more for the family's sake.

Then you're out into the real world. You hold a job, make your own money, look after your own domicile, and inevitably lose touch with a lot of those you once considered close friends. You have a select close knit group of good friends, some that live close by, and some that never forget to send a card each year. You might go out for dinner or coffee or something quiet to celebrate. Since you are self sufficient and less frivolous- it gets hard to answer the "what do you want for your birthday" questions, 'cause honestly you have everything you need to be content. Spending time with the people that are most important to you becomes the best way you can think of to spend your day. Dinner with the family doesn't seem like an imposition on your weekend off- you realize you value your time with them. (Despite their idiosyncrasies.)

Maybe it's the cynicism of age that makes a birthday lose it's magical wonder. Maybe it's 'cause you've had so many you want to stop counting around 29....for the third time. Maybe it's because the years of anticipating that you would feel somehow 'different' the next day, have ended up in an anticlimactic realization that you just have a few new lines around your eyes and more often than not you find yourself plucking out what you assure yourself is an odd grey hair. That kids refer to you as 'lady' in the grocery store, and you find yourself wondering if you brought your mother with you? And when did 20 year olds become kids?

I like to look at it another way. The realization that every day is just as important and should be lived to it's fullest has eclipsed the 'birthday' phenomenon. I'm thankful for the sunshine and a fresh breeze, stare in wonder at the icicles hanging off the escarpment, and the patterns in the tree branches stretching out to touch the pale winter sky. I'm thankful that I feel I am in the best health of my life. I love that I have my cats, books, music, art, muddled writings and loved ones to fill my idle moments. I am content. I am fulfilled.

So yes, birthdays are overrated. Life is not.

It's amazing what you will do to your body.....

I gave up caffine 3 days ago.

This may not seem like a big deal, but it had become my daily ritual for the past several months. In the last 2 months it had become my crutch....how else do you get to work at 7:30am without slumping over your keyboard in a doze? And lately, one just wasn't enough. 2, maybe 3 would keep me going until mid afternoon when I could coast through the rest of the day.

It's incredible how your body comes to depend on it. It's been three days of exhaustion, sleep deprivation and dark circles under my eyes. You'd think without the caffine one would sleep better, but I have woken up at all hours of the night and been unable to get back to sleep. I've replaced my morning coffee with decaf (now what's the point of that?) to still give myself the warm tasty coffee sensation without the evil chemical with which I have this love-hate relationship. I can fool myself for about an hour, then I can feel my eyes start to ache, and the urge to sleep grows stronger. I've tried snacking a lot on grapes and other fruit mid-morning, which tends to help. Another drawback is the bloating and lack of sucess in the potty department. (to put it delicately) Caffine makes the body retain water, so why is it that stopping the caffine seems to make one swell up like a balloon? Apparently this will subside in a few days.....it's been 3.....how uncomfortable am I supposed to get before succumbing to my craving and having a jumbo hazelnut cream?

Ahh well. A nap this afternoon has kept me functioning long enough to stay up to type this......hopefully the end is in sight.

There is one plus... decaf does taste just as good!