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twenty-nine years I am pretty sure that this is the first birthday that I have worked in years. In the past I never wanted to be at work when it was my birthday. It just didn't seem right to me. It was my one day of the year to do what was important to me and not what was important to someone else. Now it doesn't seem to bother me as much. Besides Sunday morning is my least stressful day at work and I was able to coast through most of the night. Twenty-nine years ago I made my first appearance on the stage of life and I haven't been pulled off yet. Some scenes in the past may have been more memorable than others, but I still have quite a few lines of dialogue left to utter before I am done. I also have the pleasure of meeting new members of my supporting cast in future scenes. I'm not sure what to say about being twenty-nine now that I am here. Honestly it is just another day for me and I feel the same. Nothing magical has happened. No visions have come to me in a dream. Everything seems just like it did yesterday except that I can say that I am a year older. Its not as though I had any idea where I would be in life when I would reach the age of twenty-nine. It was just an abstract number to me. I didn't say to myself that I would be five years into my career and married by this time. The future was never that certain for me. Even now I don't really think where I will be five years from now, because I am more concerned about the present. Do I feel disappointed about where I am in life? The answer would be no. I feel happy about myself as a person and I am enjoying life the best that I can. There are things that I want to do and see and I know that I will. What happens next depends on me. People have come and gone in my life, but I remain the same. I'm not saying that the world revolves around me, but in some ways I am the center of my own universe. I truly believe that each of us dwells within his or her own version of reality. Within this world a person can create their own personal heaven or hell. Some things in my past aren't as fresh in my mind anymore, but that doesn't bother me. High school definitely feels like a long time ago and even college seems distant now. Neither of those were bad times for me, but they don't cross my mind that much any more. I learned what I needed then and moved on to better parts of my life. I guess that I can sum it up by saying that two good things happened in the year nineteen hundred sixty-nine. Man walked on the moon for the first time and I was born. A person couldn't ask for more. Yes, I think quite highly of myself and a birthday is the one day of the year where you can be the center of attention without doing anything out of the ordinary. Tomorrow I'll probably be a little less melodramatic and more humble, but I couldn't resist today. I should also mention that most of this entry was composed with my mind in a mental haze. Once again I am writing after being awake for twenty-four hours. Lack of sleep tends to loosen my grip on reality. Join me as I relax and float downstream as John Lennon said many years ago.
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