Reverb 13 · Prompt 6 · Blowing Out the Candles

#Reverb13 is a prompt-a-day series for the month of December that is meant to give participants the chance to reflect on the past year and take the opportunity to write down some hopes for the coming year.

Prompt 6: How did you celebrate the passing of another year?  Did it turn out the way you had hoped?

Years never turn out how we hope.  Resolutions made at the dawn of a new year convey all the loftiest of hopes, which is probably why resolutions tend to fail.  Life gets in the ways of those lofty ideals.  The time we want to spend with others, the money we want to save, the things we want to do - all of those are too often shunted aside when deadlines loom and the s*** hits the proverbial fan.  Even when we look to make "realistic" resolutions and goals (looking straight in the mirror here), those goals never take into account the small moments, which are the Best Moments.

My birthday was a good reminder that hopes are fleeting, but that doesn't mean that Change Of Plans is a bad thing.

I had signed up for the Cave Creek Trail Run, a small event that is part of the town of Cave Creek's efforts to preserve a portion of the Sonoran Desert from development.  I really only started trail running about a year ago, and I have fallen in love with it.  Since I'd been dealing with shin splints at the beginning of the year, which prevented me from participating in an earlier trail race closer to home, I thought this would be a fabulous way to ring in my 35th year.

And then my foot went "LOLOLOLOL OMG SO FUNNY NOT HAPPENING!!!!"

Stupid tendinitis.

At the doctor's insistence, I took a two week break from running, which meant the trail run was out.  But I still went to the run and volunteered, which meant that by the time the sun rose on my birthday morning, this was my view:

This is what the run seeks to preserve.  Worth getting up to Not Run.

I've got the run on my calendar for 2014.

Once the event and a Happy Birthday To Me massage was over, I spent the day at home with Husband and HRH before sending HRH off with both my mom (who was in town for my birthday/her spring break/Easter) and Husband's mom so Husband and I could go out to dinner.  Since we've been together, we've gone out for our birthdays, and even after HRH came along, we've continued to reserve these days, as well as our anniversary, as "us only" evenings.

This year, we went low key and headed up to Scottsdale to Brat Haüs for some sausage and beer.  Being attached to my German ancestry as I am, I am always up for having some good brats und bier.  I'm not one for large birthday parties, so just sitting outside, drinking my beer, talking with my husband without the subtext of "Mom! Mom! Mommy! Mommy! Mommy! Mama! Mama! Mama! Ma! Ma! Ma! Ma! Mum! Mum! Mum! Mum! Mummy! Mummy! Mumma! Mumma! Mumma!" in the background was exactly what I needed.

The next day, I was back to taking ridiculous pictures of Zooey.

Since March, has the year turned out like I had hoped?  No.  I mean, obviously I had planned to win big in the Powerball lottery, quit my job in rock star fashion, and drink Prosecco every day, but that hasn't turned out (pro tip: to win Powerball, you have to buy a ticket?), so it's back to the grind in the midst of daydreaming, and of course, being reminded that It's the Little Things that make each year worth celebrating.