35 Redux

I have to say that my birthday was fairly well-received (by me) this year. Turns out I had a fairly stressful week leading up to it, so the idea of getting older just didn't seem like that big a deal. As to what the particular "stress" was...well that's going to require a lot more time. I'm not quite ready to lay it all out there yet. Suffice to say we're starting down a new and difficult road. It's something that I think I plan on being very open about, but I'm just not quite ready yet. And before anyone freaks out, we're all still healthy, no one's dying or anything. It's really not that bad...just a struggle that I need a name for first, and then you'll probably get sick of me talking about. It's something that will change everything, but will change nothing. And we are united as a family as we embark on this new adventure.

So anyway, major life stress followed by turning 35...not really in the mood for celebrating. Kids went to school, Patrick went to school, I went to work. I actually went for an early morning run before work because well, it was my birthday, and I needed to destress! I also found my car taking me through the Starbucks drive-thru that morning so I was handling it all pretty well.

No big fuss, just a couple phone calls (which I didn't answer), texts, facebook posts...low key birthday was fine by me.
Then I walked in my office to this...

Let me say that it was impossible to walk, roll my chair, answer the phone, etc. without first parting the sea of balloons all over the floor. I also had confetti perpetually stuck to me for the remainder of the week. And you know what?

It was just what I needed. One of my research assistants kept laughing because she said it was impossible to take me seriously when I was trying to be all sciencey in the middle of that mess. And maybe I needed to be a little less serious that week...just for a little while.

I got new running clothes for my birthday which couldn't have been more perfect. I equally think and don't think while I run...and I'm going to need to be doing a lot of both this summer.