purplelara

As some of you know, it was my birthday this week. Andrew never asked what I wanted as a gift, but I wasn’t worried, as he’s come up with some great ones before – maybe I’ll tell you about some of them sometime.

So on Wednesday night after I’d opened some girly lotions and manicure stuff, he sat down in front of me and handed me a velvet jewelry box (don’t get excited, it was bigger than *that*, more the size you’d find a necklace in). I pried the box open and found myself looking at this:

To say I was a little confused would be accurate. I tried to think of what to say, my mind was racing. I think I had come up with “Oh! A whistle!” and “for safety…right?” before he said “Look at the sides”.

On one side is engraved:

To Lara

And on the other:

Just Whistle

When I was little, I had a ritual on the eve of my birthday. I would lie in bed and remember the good things about my outgoing year and consider the things I wanted to be thinking about at the same time the next year. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve realized many people do this, but when I was little, I thought it made me special, and I’m glad that even as a child I knew to count my blessings.

Tonight, I’m doing that in front of the computer instead – can you imagine if I had a record of all those birthday-eve thoughts from years past? It would be amazing, so here is my new tradition – writing them down.

This year, my 39th, had it’s ups and downs as any year does, but it was mostly good. I have everything pretty much everything I need to make me happy, as previously noted. My birthday falls so late in the year it’s hard to remember back to the summer, but I know I had a wonderful summer – I hiked (including the Chief and the Grouse Grind), I swam in lakes (one secluded and quiet, the other full of slashing dogs and children). We spent sunny days in Squamish and Whistler and lovely evenings on patios – home and away.

I’m anything but materialistic, but I have a few things on my wish list I’d like to purchase before this time next year, and a few non-material goals too:

• I’d like to move to a bigger apartment, one with LAUNDRY (This is how I know I’m old).
• I want a new car. Not an upgrade, but a new-to-me car. My first car was a 1969 Volkswagen Bug, the same vintage as me, and ever since the new Bugs came out I’ve wanted one. I drive probably once every two or three weeks so I do NOT need a fancy new car and can’t justify the expense, but I’m going to sell my boring reliable Corolla and buy a used Bug this year, damnit.
• A VACATION! It has been WAY TOO LONG. Between moves and new jobs and recessions, vacations have fallen down the To Do list and they need to be moved to the top of the list this year, no matter what.
• I want to swim more. I took swimming lessons twice this year but have dropped off of them since the last session ended in mid-October. I love being in the water, it helps with my stress level and it helps keep me fit – I have no idea why I stopped.
• Add the two above and you get…snorkeling. I LOVE snorkeling and I haven’t snorkeled since the day of the tsunami, five years ago. No excuse for that. I will snorkel this year.
• I need to get myself back in better shape. I always say I gain weight when I’m unhappy (“oh screw it, my life sucks anyways, I’m ordering pizza and drinking wine”), but apparently I do it when I’m happy too (“let’s cuddle on the couch and eat pizza and drink wine, k?”). I need to dedicate two or three months to knuckling down on the food and wine and exercise fronts and just get ‘er done.
• I want to buy and learn to use a REAL camera. This is something I’ve wanted to do since high school (not kidding) but have been thwarted by the lack of money to buy a decent camera. I need to make it a priority.

Now that I’ve written it down, this is my 40 list and I won’t edit it. Come back next year to see how I did.