7.06.2011

In 3 Days...

...I turn 33.

Three is an auspicious number for many reasons. Just google it as see for yourself. I think this will be good year; for 12 months I'll have two 3s attached to my age. I'm not doing anything fancy, no major get-together, just a few people over for some hamburgers on the grill and Shirley Temples. Yeah, that's right: Shirley Temples. Nothing better than a splash of grenadine, lemon/lime soda and a few maraschino cherries. Okay and maybe a shot of vodka. I am going to be 33. That does qualify me as grown up and therefore in the right to add a little booze to my virgin cocktail.

There is much to take stock of what 32 has been, and what lies ahead for 33. I have many wishes, but mostly many things for which I'm grateful. Big Red and I have managed to successfully create a new life out here in the East. When we left CA in 2008, 3 years ago, we essentially hit the restart button. It was from the ground up, scratch as all hell, rebuilding our lives. And we've done it. We have a house we come home to every single day that is ours, we both have jobs we enjoy, and let us not forget sweet Olive.

The job thing did not come easy for Big Red. He struggled tremendously and was ready to put down his tools for good. It just so happens that this job now, where he has finally found a place he enjoys being, is his third job as a mechanic since moving back. My job, working at a small magnet school, is my third place of employment as a teacher. And it could quite possibly be my forever teaching home. I see no reason I would ever leave unless it is to retire. The people I work with and those with whom I'm close are so much more than just colleagues. They are the nucleus among which I share and confide. They are my friends.

So what now? We've got the jobs. We have the house. Babies you say? Of course. Babies are on the radar. It's not going to happen this year though, that dear reader, I can promise you. What I can also promise is that family has been a topic of discussion, and although it has quieted down a bit, it's there; undeniable and irrevocably present is the pull to have a baby. I feel it. Stronger and stronger, waves of something bigger and instinctual. It is there now, all the time.

If we are lucky, perhaps the next few years will hold the start of a family for us.
Who knows for what I'll be grateful next year.
Until then, happy birthday to me.

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