33

Today, I turned 33.  I think it's fair to say I am now officially in my mid-thirties.

On the surface, that line probably sounds like I'm depressed over turning 33.  It really isn't.  It's more of a, "Wow, I'm standing on the precipice" kind of thought.  I'm definitely not a kid anymore, despite some of my efforts to cling to areas of my childhood, like watching old episodes of Transformers and G.I. Joe on YouTube.

I have a whole lot to be thankful for at this stage of my life.  First and foremost is my girlfriend Kim, who I talked about at length in my last post.  One thing I didn't really mention at all in that post is our tendency to drive other friends around us nuts given how happy we are together.  I know that makes me sound like I'm bragging, but it's become a running joke with our friends by making them sick to their stomachs from seeing us together.

The point here is that Kim really wanted my birthday to be something special this year, and boy, oh, boy did she ever.  She told me several weeks ago that she put dibs on me for the night before my actual birthday, but she kept the details to herself.  I really liked the idea of having a surprise or two in store for me, so I happily went along with it.  Of course, I tried thinking of possible ideas over what she had planned, like the Lions/Ravens preseason game for one.  She said that wasn't it, but it started off with dinner and then something else afterwards.

She picked me up last night at my place, and we got right into her car for our first stop.  She took us to her favorite bar near Federal Hill in the city, the place where we had met up for happy hour to reconnect last fall.  She said she had something for me upstairs, so I walked up the steps and saw several friends all waiting with their cameras taking pictures of me.  There were Happy Birthday decorations all around, and several buddies of mine jumped out from behind a wall to scream "HAPPY BIRTHDAY, RAY!"

Yes, she put together a surprise party for me.  I've never had a surprise party thrown for me, and this went far beyond anything I could have expected.  My mom and both of my sisters were there as well, and I was super impressed over how Kim orchestrated the whole thing (with the help of a couple other friends to supply email addresses in order to plan the party).  It was an awesome party, and all my friends and family there agreed that Kim really did an awesome job with it.  I've known all along that I've been lucky to have her, and last night summed up just how lucky I am.

On the flip side, remember my list?  Yeah, it was designed from the get go to wrap up on my 33rd birthday, and that wasn't quite the rousing success.  I never even came up with 101 tasks to complete, and I only actually finished a dozen or so tasks on there.  One of the tasks that I did was write a letter to myself to read on my 33rd birthday, which I just re-read before writing this post.

I'm not going to go into great detail over the letter, but I wrote it in April 2010.  It wasn't terribly long, but I'm happy to say that several of the hopes and questions I had at that time have come true.  Sure, most of them came about in a roundabout way, but that's how life tends to work.

Up until this year, my life has had its share of ups and downs, just like most other people.  Last year has lots of really low points, but this year has been almost all up for me.  Kim has been at the center of all things great for me this year, and I'm really looking forward to celebrating a lot more birthdays with her in the future.

I just have to plan something super special for her when her birthday rolls around in November too.