34 and counting...

Last week I turned the big 3-4.  This birthday was a very memorable one.  I decided to celebrate the entire week and I had so much fun.  Lots of friends, food, and drink.  I can't think of a better way to bring in my 34th year here on this planet.  I also found myself doing a lot of reflecting.  I spent the entire week plugged into my ipod blasting old 80s and 90s music.  It brought back so many memories.  Was I ever the girl who thought Adam Duritz of the Counting Crows was the most profound songwriter in the world?  I guess at 16 I was.  Hearing 'Round Here' takes me back to the morning of my SATs and wishing I had the capacity to write such soulful lyrics.  Pretending I was the girl to whom he was singing.  Terrible, I know.  Hungry Like the Wolf by Duran Duran will always take me back to playing  in my room with Barbies; wondering my Simon LeBon was so hungry like a wolf and why oh why was the lady in the song howling like she was in pain?  Years and years later I finally got it.   Time passes so fast and memories just flood your brain as the years tick away.  I think of my little brothers and their long ago small faces and high-pitched voices screaming, "Happy Birthday, sister!".  These boys are now expecting their own little girls and I think, "When did they grow up and where was I?".  I was growing up right along with them.  It has to be so strange for a parent to watch their baby grow up into an adult.  My parents visited this weekend and they talk about my brothers and myself as if we were only children yesterday.  The age I am now is the age I will always imagine my parents as.  My mom with the long brown hair wearing shorts and watching my softball game.  My dad with ALL of his hair telling me to turn down my stereo or I will be deaf by the time I am 30!  I kind of long for those days sometimes.  Everyone does, I think.  So, this birthday brings lots of thought and happiness and nostalgia.  I'm excited to grow just as I was as an 8 year old and 16 year old.  Every new year brings more wisdom and God willing I will someday look back on 34 and feel the nostalgia of this birthday, too.