And now we are 38.

It's going to be a quiet day, I think. I'm already done teaching but I have some housekeeping chores (updating grades in the online gradebook, making a couple review sheets for upcoming exams, my daily hour of research-work) to do.

I think I am going to go home early. I have "real food" to cook for dinner tonight (lamb chops, and I am going to make real mashed potatoes, and I'm going to have a salad, I think, and maybe some kind of fruit.) I also want to run by the grocery for a couple things and while there I might look at what kind of single-serving type things of cheesecake or whatever they have. (I didn't take time to bake myself a cake this year. I could have but I wanted to work on my quilt instead).

Or maybe not. I got an e-mail from the secretary saying she had baked me a cake and put a note on it that I was to cut the first piece (we have a couple of notorious food-mooches in the department who very likely might eat most of the cake before I got to it...). I e-mailed her back and said, "Would it be mean of me to wait until 4 pm to cut the first piece?"

Some other thoughts:

When I was a kid, birthdays were mainly a day for presents and cake. The year-getting-older thing didn't seem to matter. Also, in my family, we had a tradition of the birthday person being able to pick a restaurant and we all went out for dinner, either on the person's birthday or as close to it as possible (for example, if a school function in the evening prevented it on the given day).

I remember as a kid often choosing a restaurant in Aurora (Ohio) - I think it was called the Treadway Inn? It was a restaurant in a "motor inn" (sort of a sprawling hotel thing). The food was, as I remember, good but not great. But I loved the place because it felt grown-up, and because it had Early American decor. (I was a weird kid; I think we have already established that). I loved the darkish dining room and the hallways of the building - I can still picture them in my mind, they were huge and the walls were painted a pale creamy yellow with dark wood floors. An un-Early-American (or so I know now) touch: the ceilings were very high in the hallway. I think I liked it because of that too.

Anyway - as a kid, going out to eat at the place of my choice. That was a big treat. (We didn't eat out very often at all - less than once a month - when I was a kid. Maybe kids now are more jaded).

When I got a little older, the year-older thing became more important: in another year I would be able to take Driver's Ed. This year I will be able to vote (and that was important to me). Now I am finally a full-fledged adult.

Older still - mid 20s to early 30s - each added year brought a little dread: Why am I still in school? Why haven't I embarked along the "expected" path (marriage, children) that everyone else seems to be on?

The past few years: Am I being too childish? When do I "really" grow up "for reals"? Is this what being an adult is? Where's the handbook - why wasn't I issued a handbook on How to Be an Adult?

But I'm beginning to move again - more into a mode of, well, this is how it is then. And there are good things, good changes. I know I am less self-centered and self-absorbed. I am less likely to become terribly upset over things outside of my control and more likely to shrug and more or less roll with it. I also think I'm more compassionate. And I know I'm more likely to appreciate what I have right at the moment.

A couple of examples: My mother called me the other night, apologetic: they ordered a present for me but the company they ordered from apparently screwed up massively and lost the order. So they called another place that had the same item and re-ordered; the only problem is it may be more than a week before it gets here. A few years ago I would have been very upset (but deep inside; I would not have showed it). This year, I kind of mentally shrugged. It really doesn't matter that much.

I also think - having seen a few people that I have known, both at my parents' church and the one I belong to pass away over the past few years - that I've become more ingrained with a "life is too short" idea: life is too short to spend time doing things you don't value. Life is too short to let energy vampires suck you dry. Life is too short not to enjoy some chocolate, or ice cream, or bread with real butter on it, now and then. Life is to short to do things you don't enjoy solely out of a feeling of obligation. Life is to short to put other people's ease and comfort over your personal well-being.

(Now, if I can just teach myself: Life is too short to beat yourself up for not (a) managing to write and get an NSF grant (b) publish great research in an internationally-reknowned journal and (c) design original knitting patters that gobsmack everyone with their creativity, and be able to parlay those patterns to a book contract or a regular gig with a magazine WHILE still accomplishing a and b, then I will be set).

I share a birthday (but not birth-year) with a number of famous people:

Jacob Bigelow (generally regarded as the first author to write a textbook on American botany)
Longfellow
Lotte Lehmann
David Sarnoff
Marian Anderson
John Steinbeck
Joan Bennett
Ariel Sharon
Joanne Woodward
Elizabeth Taylor
Ralph Nader
Charlayne Hunter-Gault
Adam Baldwin
Chelsea Clinton
Josh Groban (A bit depressing, that one: he was born in 1981. I was very nearly in high school then.)

There is also someone named Kacy Andrews (I do not know who that is but apparently who is famous) who was born on the same day and year as I was.

In the ancient Roman empire (supposedly; didn't they use different calendars?) this day was Equerria, a day of horse-races devoted to Mars.

It's also Dominican Republic's Independence Day.

And it's St. Leander's day. As well as St. Honorine and St. Antigone and St. Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows.

And it's a Baha'i holiday...I am not sure what spelling of the day is correct as I have seen several. It is a day devoted to service and gift-giving, or so Wikipedia says.

I also tend to think most astrology is mostly Barnum statements, but whatthehell, here's a the year ahead for people born Feb. 27.

It says, basically, that I have better problem-solving ability this year. It may be a good year to further my education. And there may be restlessness, rebellion, and romantic reversals. But:

2007 is a Number Two year for you. Ruled by the Moon. This is a year of potential companionship. It is a quiet, gentle, and mostly harmonious year that is less active than other years. Instead, you are more responsive to the needs of others. If you are patient and open yourself up in a gentle manner, you will attract both things and people. This is an excellent year in which to build and develop for the future. Advice - be patient, be receptive, enjoy the peace, collect.

So I don't know. I'll take patience over restlessness and harmoniousness over rebellion and companionship over romantic reversals, if there's any kind of choice in the matter....

According to another birthday thingie website, I am about 5.4 in dog years (or would that be reverse dog years?). And my date of birth on the Hebrew calendar is 9 Adarl 5729. I am supposedly a "life path 9" (more Barnum, I suppose), and my Native American zodiac (which I did not even know existed) symbols are the plantain and the wolf.