Happy Birthday to Me!

So last Monday was my birthday, which makes me a wise and enlightened 34.  Happily, I thought I was 34 all last year, so in my mind, I didn't even age this year.  I meant to post some lengthy diatribe about aging and its perils, but truthfully...I just ain't feelin' it.

I'm blessed so far in that I don't have gray hair.  At least, I don't think I do under the varying shades of everchanging haircolor.  Having slightly oily skin, I'm cursed with the occasional breakout (hey, they're youthful right?), but the benefit is I have very few wrinkles.  Just the typical lines present from a girl with chubby cheeks who smiles and laughs a lot...the marionette lines (though minimal as of now) and the crinkly under eye wrinkles, but would I trade those for frown lines and a furrowed brow from worry?  No, thank you.  But other than that, generally I don't FEEL old. 

Generally. 

Some days, I feel positively ancient.  Like when it occurs to me that a baby born the same time as Nirvana's Nevermind album can now legally buy alcohol.  Or the beautiful baby born to one of my besties just before high school graduation just graduated high school herself.  Or when I drive by the high school near my daughter's daycare and realize ALL the students look like babies. 

However, I've found many positives to growing older, that I didn't even know I'd find.  Of course, I expected the "normal" positives, like my wonderful husband and my beautiful daughter.  Then there are the other unexpected perks that I cherish.  For me, the main one,  is feeling comfortable in my own skin.  Not giving a damn what other people think about me. There are exceptions, but relatively speaking, I've come to a place of acceptance that I just didn't have in my younger years.  When I was younger everything was always about pleasing everyone else and fitting into their ideals.  So much so, that I was often called a "chameleon" by family members.  Not in a perjorative sense, but more in a matter-of-fact way.  And I was.  If I hung out with any one person for any length of time, I began speaking like them, dressing like them, adopting their mannerisms, etc. and I didn't even realize it in my angst-ridden, teenage mind.  It was just from an overwhelming urge to fit in, to belong, to be the person I thought was somehow cooler than me.  I didn't have a defined sense of self.  Now I feel as though I do.  So today I give you, 10 things you didn't know about me...a few of MY favorite things, not someone else's.

1) My favorite food is sushi
2) My favorite music is 60's, 90's and "coffeehouse singer/songwriter-esque" type
3) My favorite dessert is Chocolate Lava Cake from Dominos LOL!
4) My favorite season is fall
5) My favorite scent is pumpkin
6) My favorite color is yellow
7) My favorite author is Shakespeare
8) My favorite tea is Earl Grey
9) My dream vacation would be visiting Ireland
10) My dream job would be librarian

So there you have it...a little insight into my slightly twisted, utterly chaotic mess of a mind.  I'll be getting my thoughts together, as well as photos, and some semblance of a basic format in the coming weeks to make this a bit more fun/exciting to follow.  Be patient with me, I promise I'll get this all figured out!