How Do You Celebrate Your Birthday?

Happy June, everyone!

My birthday is this week! I’m trying to stay positive and excited about it like usual, but with our tight budget lately, it hasn’t been easy. But! A reason to think outside the box isn’t necessarily a bad thing- who says you need to spend money in order to have fun? I’m thinking probably a birthday mountain hike in the Catskills or maybe the Berkshires, weather permitting.

Last year, I celebrated my birthday with Andy by visiting one of those tourist traps you always see advertised on the side of the New York State Thruway: Howe Caverns.

First, though, we ate a magnificent breakfast at Duo Bistro in Uptown Kingston:

We knew the café at Howe Caverns would be pricey, so I packed a picnic and we spread it out on the roof of the car while we waited for our guided tour to start. Birthdays mean you get to eat all your favorite foods: olives, cheese, and good bread 🙂

Even though it was June, the caves remain a steady temperature of  52 degrees year round, hence the scarf.

I’ve lived in New York state my  whole life, so I’d always seen the Howe Caverns signs and been curious to check them out. Kind of like a fun-little-kid-thing that I could check off my list- been to the caves! Fun, but don’t really need to go back 🙂

One of the nicest parts about my birthday was the surprise cake that my sister, Sue, made for me. I guess in some ways I’m a traditionalist? But who doesn’t want a surprise red velvet birthday cake?

2011 marked the end of my twenties, and I wanted to do something big and memorable for my birthday. And really, I couldn’t have done it without my friends:

With fifteen people (two random guys from the parking lot joined us!), we got a group discount at Six Flags New England and ohmygoodness, what a glorious day it was. The weather! The rides! The friends <3

I wish I could go to amusement parks more often- but the rarity makes those times more special.

Do you go big for your birthday, or do you tend to downplay it? I suppose I see my birthday as an opportunity: to do something memorable that I wouldn’t otherwise do, but also to reflect and appreciate all the love I’ve experienced. My twenties were such an up and down decade, filled with all sorts of travels, identity crises, jobs, and community life at Omega for six seasons (that last one deserves a post of its own).

Last year, when I turned 30, I was still adjusting to my new life- married nine months earlier, and a new full-time student- but now, I feel more situated in my new ‘adulthood’. Bring it on, 31! Let’s see what’s next!

If you’d like to share, I’d love to hear stories & comments on your birthdays 🙂

 

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In the central place of every heart there is a recording chamber. So long as it receives a message of beauty, hope, cheer, and courage – so long are you young. When the wires are all down and our heart is covered with the snow of pessimism and the ice of cynicism, then, and only then, are you grown old.  —Douglas MacArthur

 

[Six Flags and cave photos courtesy of Andy Milford. The rest are mine.]