When I arrived at work yesterday, my team asked me why I was there.  I looked at them funny.  “What do you mean?”  They told me I had a day off marked in the calendar.  And then I remembered.

I had completely forgotten that I planned to take yesterday off to enjoy a long birthday weekend.  How lame is that?  It turned out to be a crazy day at work (no surprise there), so even if I had taken the day off, it wouldn’t have been a very enjoyable one.

Needless to say, it was not the most auspicious start to my birthday weekend.  But I had a lovely birthday today.  A little pampering in the morning with a haircut, the afternoon and dinner with the girls, my husband, my mom and my cousins (a special shout-out to cousin Seth, who is in the States on a brief vacation from his job in Afghanistan!), and a new macbook with retina display (so glad my husband convinced me to choose that model – the picture is as clear as can be) that I am using now to write this post.

Today was my 44th birthday.  I find that number a little hard to swallow.  But it is what it is.  And my gift to myself? A simple promise to make my 45th year one to remember and one to cherish with my family.