Birthdays and adulthood

Holy moley birthdays are not as much fun as a grownup.

I knew the fanfare lessens as you get older and birthdays haven't been as big a deal since I left college (particularly after the 20th Birthday party my friends threw for me), but for my 26th yesterday I really felt the luster leave.

On the bright side, Brian and I went to lunch with Jacque and I got a free ice cream, which was nice. And it was fun to hang out with Jacque mid-week. Brian and I picked up some cheesecake and wine after before heading back to town so he could drop me off at work and go make a call.

It was only my third day at this job, and though I had been asked how old I was the past two days and mentioned that my birthday would be Wednesday, I didn't expect recognition for it. But logic doesn't always communicate with that hopeful part of the brain that hopes someone would remember and at least say "Oh yeah, happy birthday." No one did. I didn't expect anyone to, but part of me hoped someone would. It kind of put a damper on my mood.

But after I clocked out and sat down to wait for Brian to pick me up, my sister called and sang me happy birthday, as did my aunt, uncle and cousin, so that was nice. And when we got home, Brian fed Acer, cut up the cheesecake and poured some wine. We didn't have any birthday candles, so he improvised:

That is indeed a tealight on a toothpick. Redneck fabulous. 

We spent the evening catching up on Once Upon a Time on Hulu and cuddling with Acer (who loved every second of it). 

All in all, it was not a bad birthday. Twenty-six obviously wouldn't be as much fun as 20 or 21, but standards of fun change. The only thing I really wanted for my birthday was to hang out with my old friends, but it would have been too much trouble to ask them to come down by the time I'd figured that out. It's not a total loss though, there's lots of times we can schedule hangouts.

I did get some boots last weekend using a gift card I'd gotten for Christmas in 2013 and called them an early birthday gift, and we picked up Mockingjay Part 1 at WalMart this morning. My mom sent me a card and some money, so I'm planning to use that to buy some shoes for my new job (which I'm planning to blog about after I've completed a full week), then either some gardening stuff or fabric. I also got an email stating I can pick up a free birthday cupcake from Gigi's in Georgetown before May 1, so there's something else to look forward to.

Here's to 26 not being as big a train-wreck of a year as 25 was. Maybe some new beginnings will take hold.