Birthday Memories

I like to send out birthday cards. It’s the one way I keep in touch with friends old, new and far away at least once a year. My list has grown considerably with time. That’s what happens when you move every few years and collect friends like some people collect stamps. Plus, I also try to keep up with all the kids my friends have had since we’ve grown up, gotten married and started families of our own. People are amazed that I keep up with all this, but it’s really quite easy. I have a birthday card folder that has dates and pockets for the month. And I prepare the cards at least six months in advance. Then all I have to do is address them, write a note and pop them in the mail (hopefully on time!). Who knew that a simple gift of a birthday card folder from my high school graduation nearly seventeen years ago would be so useful?

Back in December, one of the kids of my best friend from elementary school turned sixteen. SIXTEEN!?!?!? It’s hard to believe she is that old. Like many of the kids I send a birthday card to, I always think back on what birthday was like when I turned their age. Sometimes, I have something fun to tell them. And, probably, I sound like some old lady (which, as a friend of their parent, I guess I am) remembering days gone by. Just wait till they’re nearly thirty-five. It won’t seem old then.

For I do turn thirty-five this month. I suppose you could say it’s a milestone. After all, if I live out my three-score and ten years, I’m now at the top of the hill looking back over half a life. Maybe that’s why I’ve been thinking about past birthdays. Or maybe it’s just that I’m now having a child of my own and thinking about the birthdays I enjoyed as a kid. Or, perhaps, it’s because this baby doesn’t like to sleep at night and keeps me up with all her gymnastics in my womb and I have to think about something while I’m lying awake in the dark. (A battle I am going to win once this child is born – we will sleep at night and be awake during the day!) Whatever the reason, I thought I’d take the month of my birthday to reminisce a little. Maybe my few readers won’t be interested, but perhaps my grandchildren will find the stories funny one day when I’m long gone.

Or, perhaps I’ll just prove I really am some old lady…