What I Like about Birthdays

My favorite four things about birthdays:

1. You are totally the center of attention for an entire day. It’s fabulous (for us Leos, it’s heaven on earth!). You ALSO totally don’t have to be modest about it, you can OWN the birthday card.

2. People write all over your Facebook. Seriously what makes you feel more popular that fifty people you went to high school with (and haven’t talked to since graduation) writing Happy Birthday on your Facebook? Regardless, waking up to 40 notifications makes you feel pretty fantastic.

3. The food. People feed the birthday girl, it’s grand. Or in my case, I’ve already received four boxes of tea and a mug. Regardless, for a starving (let’s use that term loosely) college student, I’m not hard to please.

4. You feel awesome about yourself. I haven’t heard of ANYONE having a fat day on their birthday. You may look the exact same as the day before, when you felt 10 pounds overweight and hair that just wouldn’t lay right, but no matter what, you look GREAT because it’s your day.

 

Moga

A coworker of mine was talking about how she was applying for a second job at various locations around town. This would be added onto her forty hour a week full time position she currently works.

“Yeah, it would be about sixty hours a week,” she said with a shrug, “but if it’s how me and my girlfriend can close on our house -it’s what we have to do.”

The crazy thing is she is a college graduate and an incredibly intelligent woman. The idea is that you go to college, graduate, get a job, and start that thing called life right? And if you go to college, you’re on the easy track forever?

That is a complete lie.

That’s the thing with college, growing up, I was always told that I would go so that I could get a good job and make something of myself. So I worked my butt off in high school to get into a strong academic institution. Now I’m in college and everything is about building the resume, so now I’m working my butt off to ensure a position at a strong company/organization, post graduation. Now I’m getting an eery feeling that it doesn’t just stop there. There is always going to be a next step to work towards, one more thing to pour all of your energy into.

So when exactly do you put down the time sheet and start living that crazy thing we call life? How do the Kashi people have enough time to ski, climb mountains, and bike across America?

I don’t know.

I have always built my life around motivation and working hard. If I outworked everyone else around me, then I could win. It’s an easy equation and makes sense to me. Now I’m realizing that I may have to work at something, that seems a little paradoxical – but work hard at balancing living life and working towards my career. And maybe, depending on the choices I make, it really doesn’t matter if I outwork everyone else at one specific thing. What matters is that I work hard to make the entire package work – life/relationships/myself.

I would like to be a four year old again?

* * *

In light of that recent conversation and thoughts, this morning I was at work when two of my coworkers came in with yoga mats. They had decided that it was time for Monday Yoga, thus: Moga. So, we pushed the conference table aside and placed a laptop on the tabel and stretched out across the wooden floor. We took an hour break to do yoga in the middle of our conference room.

Other than the fact that my hip flexers are not going to be happy with me tomorrow: it was fantastic. It was encouraging that as a staff we were not just working to fulfill whatever organizational objectives were on the table for that day; but we were trying to push each other to live happy and healthy lives.

Pay it Forward

Apparently all I write about in this blog are coffee shops and Kombucha tea. As much as I’m tempted to write a disclaimer saying that my life is more than that, I realized that I can’t. Because my life is essentially driven by coffee shops and Kombucha tea.

Yes, I do have a problem. No, my life is not normal. Yes, I have learned to just accept it.

Anyways, this Kombucha tea is impossible to find. Trust me, I’ve tried. When I went home in May, I had to check almost every grocery store in the Columbus metropolitan area just to find it. Thank the Lordy for Whole Foods. That’s also when I realized my addiction is not cheap (is there an addiction that exists that is?). In Nashville, it’s hopeless, due to my lack of a vehicle.

I was sad this week when I realized that I was on my last box of my favorite Yogi tea. At work yesterday, I made a comment about how I was about I was about to consume my last tea bag. It was a grievous event. She asked to see it and of course I obliged: we need to spread the Kombucha love! I even let her smell it.

* * *

Then this morning, she came in and presented me with a brand new box of Kombucha Tea. She explained that she found it the night before at the grocery store she goes to and bought me a box.

It’s so funny what a random act of kindness can do. It put a smile on my face and made me realize what the phrase “warms my heart” really means. Your heart really does feel warm. My coworker and I are not super close, our conversations are limited to the daily office related banter. However, outside of office hours her thoughts came back to me, and that is truly thoughtful.

Remember that movie Pay it Forward? I watched it in the basement of my aunts house by myself and cried through the entire movie. It was embarassing to walk upstairs with tear-streaked cheeks and have to explain that I was only watching a movie, don’t worry about me. Without the emotional baggage, this experience is an excellent reminder to ‘pay it forward.’

Another perk? My Kombucha addiction may now continue.