Another birthday passes

Yesterday was my birthday.

I don't make a big deal of birthdays.  I don't usually don't even remember how old I am (have to do the math from my birth year).  I don't know how old any of my siblings are until I do the math from their birth years as well.

Park where I was serenaded. Flag 1/2 mast in honor of
Connecticut madness. It was a great, crisp, day!

I had mentioned to some students a few weeks ago that it was my birthday on the 19th.  Some of them remembered and yesterday came to me and told me happy birthday.  Two sang (quite well) to me, and a group I took a field trip with to Washington Square sang to me, very loudly and embarrassingly in the park - but I loved it.  Various people came up to me throughout the day to wish me well after they heard it through the grapevine.  I had the numerous Facebook messages - many generic, some personalized.  I got calls from the family (including the parents who are away for the holidays with my grandparents - talked to them, too, which brought a tear to my ever increasingly sappy self at 5:45 in the morning).

It was good.

Today, I joked with the principals about how they had forgotten my birthday.  They sang for me and gave me cookies, pound cake, and some Hershey's, and some applesauce - which the principal remembered from the beginning of the year that I enjoyed.  A teacher gave me a shout out in the morning meeting today which led to even more well wishes.

It was great.

I went to dinner with Kid Sis #1 and ate way too much great Chinese food.  I got to play with her adorable dog, and we talked and caught up since that was the first we had seen each other since Thanksgiving even though we live in the same city.

It was awesome.

I do feel older - my joints are not the same and my skin is looking more like not-quite-mixed pancake batter more than the track-star of old.  I am starting more and more to remember my childhood in shades of gray that make it seem better than the way the youth of today live.  And I can't stay up past 10 on weekdays (that could be age, or because I have to wake up at 4:30 in the morning).  I've begun to put fruit into my cereal to make sure I get enough fruits and veggies each day and I am more cautious about my clothes not looking too young when I dress.

There are some drawbacks to getting older, but if my birthdays keep being so enjoyable, and I can work more at my joints, and the other issues aren't that big, I may not mind this aging thing too much.

Linking up for Thankful Thursday with Black Tag Diaries.