Thirty-three

I celebrated a little milestone last week, my 33^rd birthday, it’s special to me as my lucky number has always been 3, so two of them standing side by side can only mean good things for the year to come. The day came and went with very little fanfare, the people that matter most remembered, and I had a beautiful day with lovely company. I have to share my birthday with the increasingly popular (here in Australia) Halloween (wasn’t this only supposed to be a US thing?), and, yes, my munchkins ran to the door halfway through their “Happy Birthday” song to me as some more trick or treater’s rang the doorbell, but, hey, that’s all okay.

With this milestone, I have been feeling a little philosophical of late, so wanted to share a few little things about myself, this doesn’t happen often, I may take this post down after a day or so as my self-conscious self takes over and I freak out about sharing a bit too much of me, so for now,  here goes...

What I know about life and about myself at 33...

*Good and true friends are hard to find... I have been kicked to the kerb more times than I care to remember by my own species – from an awful schoolies moment as the designated driver, to the horror bridesmaid moment of my own wedding, to a slow growing distance brought on by different stages of life amongst friends. I can count my true friends on one hand, and, I am, finally, now and only just now, like in the past few days, okay with this. I am learning that some friends are in our lives for a short time, some for a longer while, some forever, and some should have maybe never been there in the first place. I will freely admit that my best friend is my hubby, I call him daily to chat about what has gone wrong, what has gone beautifully, and everything in between, and he always listens... and even better, always takes my side;)

*You can’t make everyone happy... simple as that. I have tried to please everyone around me my whole life, it just doesn’t work. I am making a conscious effort to ensure that the precious souls under my own roof are happy and anything else is out of my control.

*I am far too short to wear long dresses, but have just bought 2 this week, I just don’t care anymore, well maybe a little, but I’m trying not to. Ok, so I look a little like a Gelfling shrouded in way too much fabric for my frame, I have had to cut off 3 feet of fabric so I don’t trip over and have had to redo the hems, but they are comfy and cool and easy to move around in with a young family without the world seeing my undies, and at 33, I am going to wear long dresses for the first time in my life (apart from my wedding dress of course), without a care as to how I may look beside a 6ft stunner.

*I love flat shoes, another problem when you are vertically challenged, but nonetheless, it is all I own and all I intend to buy for the rest of my life, so, shoe shop staff... listen up... don't tell me that a heel would make my calves look more 'elongated', as I may just kick you in the teeth with one of my flats that sits at the end of one of my non-elongated calves.

*I never wanted to live in a big city. I know that by ‘big city’ standards, Brisbane is not huge, but I never thought I would end up here. I wanted to bring up my children in a small beachside town, where you knew most people, and the local post office was the hub of the town, and weekends were spent fishing, and by the water doing ‘watery’ things. But... here I am... two houses and two munchkins later... I’m still here, I make it work, but if I could pick up my little family and run for the hills... err... shores... and still make a living... I would, without a doubt, or even a look over my shoulder.

*I don’t feel like I am in my ‘thirties’. I still see personalised number plates with any year after 1985, and think, ‘man, you’re not old enough to drive’... only to then do the math and realise, that they actually are.

That's it from me for now... sorry if you just fell asleep and hit your nose on your keyboard;)