I turned 34 yesterday. I assume you’ll ask why I didn’t write this yesterday and my response is it was my birthday why the hell should I have to do anymore work than just get out of bed?
I’ve come to enjoy my birthday less. It is a marker that indicates my body no longer heals or performs as quickly as it used to. Age forces us to confront mortality and I don’t really like that much.
Callie is great about making my birthday great. She takes care of everything, let’s me sleep in and tries to find things to do on New Years day. You ever try to find something to do on New Years besides overcome a hangover and watch football?
Callie took me to lunch at a local Japanese place. I think we’ve only ever taken the kids to a Japanese place once before.
There is a reason for that.
Jenna was really good about the food and even tried a california roll and liked it in spite of the sea weed. Aubrey loved gyoza. Alyssa at a bit of miso soup. Mostly the all just ate rice. Devin loves salsa and will literally drink it if given the chance. I gave him some wasabi. He made a lot of faces and didn’t really care much for it. I think I’ll wait until he’s older and can eat it on sushi. He didn’t care much for pickled ginger either.
Now that I think about it Japanese food isn’t really like anything we associate with food here in the US.
After spending several years in Japan associating with people I gained a new respect for what makes us all the same and what makes us each unique. I miss the country and the people. I still want to say ‘Ganbatte!’ to people but there really isn’t an English equivalent and people look at me funny when I say it.
I don’t eat Japanese food often but it brings back several years of my life, a different culture and a different mindset. Thanks to my wife for taking me out. To most people it is just food but to me it is a revival of an entire period of my life.
Happy New Year – we’re all another time period closer to death.