{"id":6279,"date":"2011-03-26T22:37:32","date_gmt":"2011-03-27T02:37:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/?p=6279"},"modified":"2011-03-26T22:37:32","modified_gmt":"2011-03-27T02:37:32","slug":"birthday-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/?p=6279","title":{"rendered":"Birthday"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n

So I turned thirty-four today, which I think I wish I found more unbelievable than I actually do. <\/p>\n

When I turned thirty, it just happened to be while I was at a conference for my job, and some co-workers asked me if I felt any different. “Well,” I remember saying, “I don’t feel twenty<\/i> anymore.” And that’s pretty much how it goes: I don’t feel impossibly older than I did twenty-four hours, or even a year, ago, and god knows I don’t feel particularly grown up<\/i>. But I also don’t feel particularly young<\/i>. Maybe it’s the bad back, the recently banged-up knee, or maybe it’s just the natural way of these things. I feel<\/i> like I’m in my thirties.<\/p>\n

When I was in Boston earlier this month<\/a>, I noted that, as I stood surrounded by crowds of twenty-somethings in Harvard Square, I had no desire to be among them. I felt no great nostalgia for my college days, I said, just the onset of a crotchety annoyance. That’s not entirely accurate. I’m occasionally nostalgic for my<\/i> college days, just as I’m nostalgic sometimes for my childhood, teen years, or my early twenties. But that’s a far cry from wanting to hang out with these<\/i> college students, or even wanting to relive<\/i> those nostalgic years. Back and knee notwithstanding, I don’t really want to be<\/i> in my twenties anymore. And lord knows, I’d be in no rush to relive adolescence.<\/p>\n

I think that’s a healthy attitude, right? I mean, my life’s not perfect and not yet everything I wished it would be, but I’d rather be moving forward than looking backward.<\/p>\n

Anyway, it was a really nice birthday, just a quiet Saturday at the old homestead. The weather was beautiful, although too cold to really do much of anything outside, but I spent the day happily watching some television and reading some Kaleidotrope<\/i> slush. (Discovering that rarest of rare things: a story I want to accept.) Then this evening, I had a nice dinner out with my parents and some very lovely presents afterward — including the first two volumes of Absolute Sandman<\/i> and a new leather jacket. (I managed to wear my previous one into the ground; I’ll have to be gentler with this one.) My sister called to wish me a happy birthday, and I’ll see her next week when she and her husband visit, and overall I had a really nice day.<\/p>\n

Hopefully our dog, who as it happens shares my birthday, can say the same thing. Although I think he’d argue he got much less cake.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So I turned thirty-four today, which I think I wish I found more unbelievable than I actually do. When I turned thirty, it just happened to be while I was at a conference for my job, and some co-workers asked me if I felt any different. “Well,” I remember saying, “I don’t feel twenty anymore.” … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[16,4,28],"class_list":["post-6279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-books","tag-kaleidotrope","tag-personal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6279"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6279"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6279\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}