last time i was here, i was 25.

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so, do i look older?

it’s cool, you can be honest. (not really).

technically, i was 25 years, 364 days, 20 hours in this picture, but you get the idea. (i’d take a fresh one now, but i worked all day and im not wearing any silver clothing or pretty eye makeup and nobody wants to see that).

i don’t see any wrinkles. and i think the hair dye effectively covers the grays.

i could totally pass for a solid 24. right guys?

right?!!

so far, this whole 26 thing pretty much feels exactly like the whole 25 thing, except for that nagging, “you should have your life together a bit more by this point” crap i keep hearing in the back of my mind, but im getting pretty used to ignoring that.

no new privileges come with 26. no exciting milestones, or fabulous parties or instant wisdom.

it’s just one of those birthdays in my 20s that gets me a step closer to the big 3-0.

it’s the kind of age people forget when you tell them. the kind of age that just gets classified as “20s.” how old are you? oh. me? im twenty-blah-blah, is all anyone hears. to them 26, 27, 28. eh. it’s all the same.

my grandma told me yesterday, that for many years she was “26.” you know, until her kids got old enough that people started questioning when exactly she got knocked up and how she’d gotten through puberty so early.

if it’s a good enough age for her to lie about though, it’s good enough for me to actually BE i guess – for a couple years anyway.

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My last day as a 25-year-old

holy crap.  26 doesn’t count as “late 20s” right??

right?

im pretty sure im still in my “mid 20s.” RIGHT?!

birthday sigh.

life is hard.

tomorrow i’ll officially be just 24 years away from 50.

plans include church and then lunch at olive garden with the family and then maybe some Mad Men after that. im telling you thisbecause it seems to be everyone’s favorite question when i tell them Sunday is my birthday. i say “ya, my birthday is sunday” and they say “oh. what are you doing for the big day?” and then i watch the look of disappointment come over their faces when they realize  i consider going to the olive garden to be exciting enough to do on my birthday.

have you people never tried their breadsticks?! i mean, for salad’s sake they’re FREE!

so anyway. ya. im not sure if i’ve turned into the 26-year-old i saw in my head back when i was picturing those sorts of things as though 26 was SO OLD.

i mean, i’ve got a job in the thing i (mostly) love, and it’s in the chicagoland area to boot – a dream that seemed impossible just a few short years ago.

on the other hand, im not like “financially stable” or anything.

i live in a great place with jill (who writes the nicest things about me that you can read here) and it comes with a garage, and a laundry room and a dog.

but, well, if for some reason jill ever decides to move, my butt would be living in a tent before i could say “black jack.”

i have an awesome phone and a (mostly) running car and even a fantastic blog (if i do say so myself).

but my mom pays my phone bill (thanks mom), my car sometimes sounds like a spaceship, and well. ya. actually my blog is pretty fantastic, isn’t  it? 🙂

over the last year ive lost a gall bladder, gained some earrings and learned how to be a youth group leader at my church. i’ve been blond, brunette and somewhere in between. i’ve stayed in the same house for almost 12 straight some months (you owe me $10 steve). and i’ve met my hero. (dooce).

i’ve managed to not get laid off in the worst recession EVER. (knock on wood). (no. seriously. please knock on some wood). (thanks). ive worked johnny depp into about 5,826 conversations. and ive created a pretty great vegan chocolate chip cookie recipie despite the fact that i’ve also decided i love cheese way too much to be vegan.

there was good and there was bad, but if you measure success by whether or not i made it to the other side, then id have to say year 25 was a success.

here’s looking to you 26. hope you don’t suck.

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monday. monday. (and also sunday night).

a couple lame things happened to me, so let’s share shall we?

first, last night i was backing out of my garage at 10:03 p.m. to go to wal-mart because even though i was supa tried, i had no deodorant and was thinking maybe the people i’d see at work wouldn’t be cool with that and also, that maybe there would be a crazy fire or accident or flood or something and i would have to cover it and my soulmate would be there in uniform and then he would want to ask me out when he saw me from afar, but then he’d change his mind when he got up close because i smelled like icky stuff mixed with gross things. and then BAM!

i hit the freaking passenger side mirror off my car by running into the garage wall.

what the frick?! i was going like three miles an hour. don’t car parts typically have a little more fight in them?

plus, come on, we all know im never going to pay to get that crap fixed.

alas, because i still needed deodorant, my roommate and i re-installed it with some packaging tape and off i went in my newly ghetto car.

then today, i went to work at my little bureau office where i was going to enjoy a day of solitude and BAM!.

my key got stuck in the door at work.

it’s a problem that doesn’t even sound like it should be a real problem.

apparently this happens though. keys just go into doors and never come out. they meet someone special or something among all those nuts and bolts and it’s over. you never get to lock your door again. it’s right there next to “bushes spontaneously combusting” on the master list of problems people have.

the three nice men who work nearby all looked at me like i was a bat-sh*t nuts when i asked for help and their eyes said “cute little girl, are you too weak to pull a key out of a door? ha. ha. ha. let me help.”

about five seconds after that each realized i was actually pretty awesome/sane, and that my key was, in fact, stuck in the lock and their eyes changed to say “woah. this key IS stuck in the lock.”

minutes before committing to unscrewing the lock, a miracle tube of de-icer appeared from one of the men and they were able to lube it up enough to pull it out. (that’s what she said).

and off i went.

the good news is, i totally got to wear a pretty new fuschia jacket today that my mom got me for my birthday (which is sunday). and, mad men is back in my life and as awesome as ever, AND a really cute guy sent me a message on facebook.

as a result, im going to go ahead and put the last 24 hours in the win category.

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