31.

Last Tuesday, I turned 31. Seeing as this has been one of the busiest Septembers of my life, it seems only fitting that my actual birthday flew by in a bit of a whirl as well. (Life! You are suddenly flying by at an incredible, neck-breaking speed! Let's take a breath now and again, shall we?) As luck would have it, I found myself down in Hot-lanta on my birthday which meant two things:

1.) I was able to celebrate turning another year older with three of the most important people in my life.
and
2.) I took the day off, stopped working remotely, and got to do whatever the heck I pleased. Because it was my birthday and those are the universal birthday rules.

In an attempt to start 31 off right, I took myself for a run. I know! Good start, right? But let's not get too far ahead of ourselves, considering my main motivation was to preemptively burn off calories, seeing as I had every intention of treating myself to a chocolate-chip cannoli for breakfast. From there, it was off to a nearby spa where I cashed in on the hour-long massage my Mother gifted me. Do you know the only thing bad about an hour-long, full-body massage? The fact that an hour only lasts for 60 minutes.

After lunch, it was time for the purchase of my annual guilt-free birthday present. There were some solid contenders this year, but when push came to shove all I really wanted to do, all I really wanted as a present? Was a stress-free, guilt-free trip into one of my favorite stores, Anthropologie. Do you know this magical place of which I speak? Personally, I am madly, deeply in love - have been for years. I want to live in that store. I want their home goods, their perfumes. I love their shoes, their jewelry, their clothes. The thing about Anthropologie though, is it's not exactly affordable. You can catch a few good deals now and again, but I rarely even venture inside the hallowed walls of that store because why torture myself?

Except today was different. Today was my birthday.

I set a mental monetary limit before I even set foot inside. I promised myself I could get whatever I wanted so long as it fell under my spending cap without a second of hesitation or guilt. Which is exactly what I did, down to the penny. And then I strolled blissfully out of that lovely store, white shopping bag in hand, armed with a few cute new items to help me tackle this 31st year. Because as my friend pointed out earlier that day - at 31, life has just begun.

In the evening my family and I opened presents and ate a delicious dinner and shared lots of laughs and stories, which made the day darn near perfect. Oh I realize on some levels, and in the grand scheme of life, it was just a day. But for me, it was another marking of time, another moment to cherish, another new year of life. My life. It was a birthday that flew by in an instant...but it was a lovely, joyous, perfect instant. And that's the stuff that matters.


Oh. And we also had cake. There was lots and lots of cake.