Birthday Blues

One day I randomly asked my mom what she most wanted to be remembered for. Without a second thought she said her parties. With this in mind, its not surprising that my mother gets just as excited about theme parties as I do. When we were little our birthday parties were always the best in the neighborhood. Before I even turned ten I had a murder mystery party. We mailed out invitations with roles for each of my elementary school friends, each friend had to show up in their assigned character, the maid, the dog walker, the doctor, etc. Once everyone arrived we had to find the intricate clues that my mom planted around the house to solve who the murderer was. I really only remember the clues leading to my brother hiding in the basement where he scared the living crap out of us.

After those years of goodie bag birthday parties ended, I kind of began to hate birthdays all together. Somewhere along the way I started to find them depressing. I hate the pressure to find something to do for my birthday. I miss the days of my my mom's fortune telling party, the Polaroid glamour shot party, or pizza and maze craze. Of course bars and beer pong are fun too, but I always find it a little sad. I guess its just nostalgia.

Last night I went out for my friend's birthday, which reminded me that mine is just a little more than a month away, January 10th to be exact. I guess after 1, 10, 13, 16 and 21, there's not another big birthday until the big 30. My sister just turned 30 and said something interesting. She told be she thinks that thirties are alot eaiser than your twenties. I'm curious to find out if this is true. But really, I guess age is just a number. I love when your grandparents or best friend calls you for your birthday and they say ask "how does it feel to be __ (insert age)?", and the answer is always "I feel exactly the same as I did last year". Of course if you asked a six your old this you'd get a completely different answer, which I find adorable.

So I guess age is all mental and your birthday is only as exciting as you are excited about being a year older. Either way the pressure is on to start making plans for January 10th, which falls pefectly on a Saturday this year. Right now I'm thinking a bowling party. I've had some strong feelings about bowling in the past, but maybe bowling and pizza will bring back some of that nostalgia, and of course beer never hurt a celebration... it's just one of those perks of getting older.