Once more 'round

Tomorrow I turn 47. That's a weird age, isn't it? Not a round number, not a low enough number to be "cool," not a big enough number to be impressive. (However, 47 IS a prime number, so there's that).

I dunno. I've said before adult birthdays are mostly a cheat. When you're a kid, if you're lucky, you get a special meal and a cake someone baked for you and a couple of new toys. And if you're REALLY lucky you get to have a party. (I never really did, not as a kid, but then, I never had that many friends and for some reason my two BEST friends disliked each other, so....I did have a party of sorts for my 16th birthday; my three best friends at the time took me out to Chi-Chis for dinner, and then we went back to one girl's house to watch movies and have a sleepover)

As an adult, mostly on my birthday I've worked. One year I got sent to some terrible "academic efficiency" meetings which essentially was people lecturing at us to tell us that lecture was a "bad" way of conveying information, and also telling us we would be the Advance Guard in a "slipstreaming" project, where we would get to write lab manuals that everyone else in the state would be able to use for free, and we'd be heartily thanked for our contribution of time, energy, and intellectual property that someone else would benefit from (presumably monetarily). (Luckily that never came to pass).

One year, when I had a small and particularly amiable Soils class, I made a "dirt cake" and brought it in for them. (and I learned something in the process, that those kind of "quick" recipes using a lot of processed ingredients are often more involved than doing a plain old 1-2-3-4 cake or sheet cake would be.)

I've been sick a few years recently on my birthday, though generally not enough to cancel class. (I think spring allergy season makes me more prone to respiratory things)

I honestly don't know what a "good" adult birthday would look like for me. Most people I know are part of a family or at least coupled, and usually they get homemade cards from their kids and a gift from their spouse (and if they're very lucky, their spouse is either a good cook or good at making restaurant reservations, so they get a nice dinner out of it). I do know that the "model" is is that it's "pathetic" to be alone on your birthday but I usually am, what ever I'm doing - none of the people I do stuff with as friends are into either antiquing or going to craft-supply shops, which is what I often do.

(At least I am not forced to do what the Mars Rover is programmed to do, that is, sing Happy Birthday to itself every year it is on Mars. Whoever programmed that just wanted to make people sad, I think. It makes me sad to think of it even though I know the Rover is not sentient so the whole thing doesn't matter to it.)

This year is no exception, other than that I'm going somewhere I've not been before: Whitesboro, Texas. (And I am trying not to be uncomfortable with the fact that that town has been in the news a bit recently for a few crimes, mostly drug crimes). They have a quilt shop and a yarn shop. I think they also have an antique store and hopefully they have some kind of good, non-fast-food place that serves lunch. They're supposed to be about an hour away, according to the online maps.

Also, the way I can go back to get to 75, I can go through Sherman and stop at one of the big antique malls there if I want to and also go to the Kroger's.

(Ugh, that reminds me of a dream I had the other night....there is a big new Kroger's Marketplace (eventually) coming to Sherman and I was hoping the smaller, older Kroger's didn't close before it opened.....well, in the dream, I pulled into the Kroger's lot and went in, and all the groceries were gone, just folded-up empty shelves, and I wound up arguing with a customer-service person about how people were supposed to get groceries if the store selling them had closed before the new one opened up. Granted, there are other groceries in the "real" Sherman, but I think I do worry too much about losing access to things I need....I have seen too many businesses go out of business)