Happy Belated Birthday to Me

39 came for me yesterday, which felt mildly inconsiderate in the middle of a pandemic. Usually as birthdays approach, I like to project some lofty goals on the upcoming year such as, "This year I'm going to keep all my closets organized!" or "I'm going to write a blog post every week." In the middle of Covid though, I mostly used my birthday as the next goalpost to get to and to create some excitement (distraction) for the kids from our current distopian state. Yesterday, when the day finally arrived, my most frequent thought was "Please, let things be back to normal by next year." And yes, I acknowledge that things will likely never go back to "normal" but it'd be awfully nice to have some friends or family over for dinner and be allowed to touch them. In fact, I will gladly embrace 40 if it means I get to spend a few hours alone at an outlet mall (please outlet malls, don't let Covid take you down). Luckily, yesterday, my more somber thoughts were interrupted many times by snugly little four year old and six year old bodies climbing into my lap, plently of cake and way too many french fries. I am so so lucky - and my true goal for my last year of my thirties is to find a way to recognize that in the face of all this uncertainty.