I had an excellent birthday yesterday, despite having to go in to work. I had a fun and interesting meeting with my co-teacher, where we hammered out plans for this week and discussed our thinking for the last few weeks of class. Sitting in my office, I was thrilled to see so many birthday wishes coming through on Facebook from so many corners of my life, from old high school and college friends to blog friends to former work colleagues. In class itself, the whole class sang Happy Birthday followed by my co-teacher’s singing of a different birthday song and then we all had candy. After class, another professor happened by and gave us cupcakes in honor of National Women’s Day. When I got home, Mr. Geeky surprised me with a bike. And not just any bike either, but a pink Schwinn mountain bike. I feel like a kid again!

As we get older, I think we no longer want to commemorate our birthdays as it’s just a reminder, as Mr. Geeky once said to Geeky Boy, that “we’re one step closer to death.” But it is nice to have a day just for you, where friends and family wish you well. I’m grateful to have such wonderful friends and family and for my continued health and happiness. As my father and I were saying last night on the phone, sometimes you just have to remember how good you have it.