Captured on the carousel of time, but with goose down.

Yesterday evening, I drafted a ranty, whiny, cranky post about not much of anything. For whatever reason, the specter of turning 34 loomed large and unpleasant before me, and I approached my own birthday with little of the gleeful anticipation I'd had for Steve's just a few days before. Dinner at my parents' house helped a bit, particularly when my mom broke out the traditional pumpkin birthday pie (which is what you get when your birthday abuts Thanksgiving and you don't like chocolate). But still, I went to sleep feeling angsty and old.

When my alarm clock vibrated me awake much too early this morning, it felt like any other weekday. Then Steve pulled me closer, waited for me to put my hearing aids in, and jogged my brain into alertness with a throaty rendition of "Happy Birthday." By the time I was showered and dressed, he'd whipped up a delicious birthday smoothie for me and was ready to roll with his very first effort at the Great Birthday Treasure Hunt.

Whatever doubts I may have harbored about Steve's willingness or ability to fulfill this important family obligation (which landed on his shoulders the moment he proposed) were quickly erased. Even his initial "warm-up" clue was clever, and the clues got progressively more creative and challenging as I made my way through the house. Literary references, word plays, and in-jokes figured prominently, as they should, and by the end of the hunt, with my long-coveted puffy coat resting cozily on my shoulders, I was grinning from ear to ear and feeling full of youthful energy.

I'm not sure why the impending birthday weighed so heavily on my shoulders. Now that it's here, 34 doesn't seem terribly different from 33, which felt a lot like 32. The clock keeps ticking, the pages on the calendar turn over, time marches on, and there's not a whole lot I can do about it (short of Botox, boob jobs, and the like). So I stand to face the new year head on, knowing it will bring all sorts of new adventures, both known and unexpected. Whatever comes my way, at least I'll be warm.