Pretty much every birthday post has been called “Happy Birthday to Me,” so why buck tradition and name this post something else?  I mean, yes, I’m also lazy, but that’s beside the point.

Oh how I wish I could go back to 39-year-old me and slap her:

It’s my birthday, and I’m practically 194 years old.  I told the twins that I’m now an old crone, with shriveled up ovaries that don’t work.  Josh pointed out that my ovaries didn’t work back when I was 27, so this isn’t a new development.  “Fine, then my hands are gnarled and liver spotted.  And my hair is grey.”  They didn’t even look up from their nutella-slathered challah.  That’s how old I am.  No one even looks up from their challah when I talk because my voice is so frail that my words just crumble to dust in the air.

Now, NOW, I am old.  I am so old that all my grey hair is white and sticking out at odd angles.  I am so old that if I bite into anything too hard — like sandwich bread… or air — my teeth fracture into thousands of tiny bits.  I am so old that my body is shriveling and now I can wear Gymboree clothes again.  I am so old that I can’t hear anything if the water is running.  All I can do is say over and over again to the speaker, “You know that I can’t hear you when the water is running.”

I am 41.

41 hurts less than 40.  40 was exquisitely painful, and 41 is more like a pap smear than an HSG-of-a-birthday.  It’s like, yes, both have the pinch of the speculum, but 40 has the pain of the shooting dye while 41 is more like the poke of a swab.

This past weekend, I went to Josh’s college reunion, which I’ll unpack in a separate post.  But it’s bittersweet revisiting a college, even if it’s not your college.  It makes you think about running to class after oversleeping and ordering pizza late at night and highlighting textbooks and moving apartments every fall.

I don’t really want to do the college years again; it was sort of hard to not know where I was heading.  But it’s nice to pause in that space, to look around, to take stock, to remember.

That is the good part of a birthday, too.  It’s a time to stop for a second and remember every birthday before this one, and be grateful that I’m still aging.  (Even if I am also slowly going deaf.)

In a few weeks time, it will also be my blogoversary.  My ninth blogoversary.  I’ll be entering my tenth year of blogging.  Oh how odd!   That something I could create while lying on my sofa, dictating what I wanted on the screen to Josh (because I sure as hell wasn’t going to figure out Blogger), could still be around this many years later.  Still puttering around like its writer, feeble but constant.

Thank you for being here.  It has been a bit of a shithole of a year.  Sometimes Josh and I dissolve in slightly hysterical laughter as if we are this close to losing it.

There are the friends and family who get me through crap on this side of the computer.  And then there are all of you who get me through crap on the other side of the computer.  And this safety net; strung between reality and virtuality, holds me up.  So thank you for getting me through another year.

Not sure what #MicroblogMondays is? Read the inaugural post which explains the idea and how you can participate too.

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It’s sort of amusing that this is the 40th MicroblogMonday because today is also my last day being 40.  Tomorrow I turn 41, and you might as well save your birthday wishes until then because today is about still being 40.  I am 40, damnit, and don’t make me age before I’m ready.

The last day of a personal year (as opposed to the calendar year) is so bittersweet because you know that you can’t slow time.  You know that tomorrow you will wake up and be an entirely new age.  And that is odd, you know, the idea that I will describe myself differently tomorrow.

Tomorrow will be for birthday celebrations.  Today is a last day celebration.

What is the perfect way to spend a last day?  What would be your ideal last day before a birthday?

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Are you also doing #MicroblogMondays? Add your link below. The list will be open until Tuesday morning. Link to the post itself, not your blog URL. (Don’t know what that means? Please read the three rules on this post to understand the difference between a permalink to a post and a blog’s main URL.) Only personal blogs can be added to the list. I will remove any posts that are connected to businesses or are sponsored posts.

I got to see Josh’s old college, though the students were mostly be off-campus.  This was good because if they were there, I would have likely spent the bulk of my time there thinking “my good years are behind meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee” in the face of their optimistic youth.

Not that I’m dramatic or anything.

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The Atlantic recently reported on a study that looked at the age that people peak in terms of skills.  It turns out that I still have a few good years ahead of me.  The author writes,

The takeaway from the study is a happy one: There’s no single “smartest” age—people of different ages are best at different things. While in your 50s your memory might start failing you, your days of enjoying a brobdingnagian lexicon are still ahead.

YES!

It is nice to know that there is plenty I still have to look forward to such as increased vocabulary and understanding how things work, though I should probably stop saying things like college is wasted on the young since apparently certain skills peak in the late teens and early twenties.

I guess there is a reason to have those kids in school after all.

I’ve been reassuring myself that just because a skill peaks at an early age doesn’t mean that we lose it.  It simply means that we’ve reached the point where it’s as good as it’s going to get in the intellectual sense.

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I think we have this impulse as humans to always be moving towards something better and not being happy with the plateau.  Which is great in the sense of self-improvement, but bodes poorly for being content with the happily-ever-after.

No one wants to think that their best years have already happened.

We live in a society that values youth, even if young people have a crap vocabulary.  Look at that!  I am living proof!  I just used the term “crap” to describe vocabulary instead of the erudite word I will reach for in my sixties and beyond.

It is odd to be an adult.  To think of yourself as grown up.  That time period once seemed so far away.  And then, suddenly, it’s here.

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I always said that when I was an adult, I was going to eat cookies for dinner.  And now look at me, with a big plate of lettuce.  What happened?

What promises did you make about adulthood when you were younger?

P.S. Tomorrow is #MicroblogMonday.  Get writing.

I’ve been following the iOS9 leaks with great interest because my phone — a phone I have no intention of replacing despite its age — is the oldest product supported by the current OS.

Will my phone be pushed into extinction by this new update? Maybe, says some pessimistic sources. They’re downright gleeful over the idea that people will need to purchase a new product in order to have a functioning phone.

But then there are the gentler, hopeful, unicorns-trailing-rainbows versions of the upcoming OS rumours which make it accessible to everyone, even those with older products. “Apple is going to make their future operating systems last longer so people will invest in products like the Apple Watch. I mean, who would buy such a thing if it has such a short life span?”

Uh? A lot of people? Judging by sales?

I don’t like change, so I would greatly appreciate the second version of the OS being the correct version of the OS. I guess we’ll know some time next month when they make the formal announcement.

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Stop procrastinating.  Go make your backups.  Don’t have regrets.

Seriously.  Stop what you’re doing for a moment.  It will take you fifteen minutes, tops.  But you will have peace of mind for days and days.  It’s the gift to yourself that keeps on giving.

As always, add any new thoughts to the Friday Backup post and peruse new comments in order to find out about methods, plug-ins, and devices that help you quickly back up your data and accounts.

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And now the blogs…

But first, second helpings of the posts that appeared in the open comment thread last week.  In order to read the description before clicking over, please return to the open thread:

• “Play Time Troubles” (Live Life) — non-IF
• “The Quiet Ones” (Too Many Fish to Fry)

Okay, now my choices this week.

I also bookmarked Too Many Fish to Fry’s post, “The Quiet Ones.”  Because it’s true — the people who speak the loudest aren’t the only ones in the room.  She writes, “We live in world that rewards noisy people.”  Her post is an excellent reminder to not overlook the people who don’t bubble up in your Facebook feed because they post less often or who aren’t the center of conversation in the room.

Illustr8d has a moving post about the unfortunate lessons she has learned in life and how they have, in turn, made her see the world in a new way.  Humans are resilient, and our ability to find grace and hope even during unlikely times is a small good thing.  Go read the post in full.

Lastly, Surviving Infertility gives us the two sides of her heart: the negative and the positive.  She could easily tip one way or the other, but I love this post that walks the line between the two, showing the complexity of a life.

The roundup to the Roundup: iOS9 is coming… will my phone still work?  Your weekly backup nudge.  And lots of great posts to read.  So what did you find this week?  Please use a permalink to the blog post (written between May 22nd and 29th) and not the blog’s main url. Not understanding why I’m asking you what you found this week?  Read the original open thread post here.

It’s time for another edition of a few of my favourite things because I’ve fallen in love with a yogurt bar. “Well, Melissa, why don’t you marry it if you love it so much?”

How do you know I haven’t?

I haven’t… yet.  But that doesn’t mean that I wouldn’t consider it.  At the very least, I keep multiple boxes in the house at all times.

I passionately love Yasso bars for three reasons: (1) they taste good, (2) they are only about 100 calories per bar, and (3) they have 5 grams of protein per bar.  Which means that they’re not exactly terrible for you.

At least, that is what I tell myself to feel okay if I eat a second one.

My favourite flavour is coffee chip.  My second is cookie dough (which is odd because I would never dream of eating cookie dough ice cream).  I want to find the chocolate fudge ones, but I’ve been to three different grocery stores and still have never seen them.

So good.

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I recently bought myself A Sailor’s Dream as a present for completing a task.  I knew it was going to make my heart ache, but… oh my G-d, the drawings with the music: it is one of the most gorgeous games of all time.  There is no winning or losing.  Just exploring.  I allow myself one tiny section of the game per night and explore every centimeter of it.

The best part about the game is that new things pop up over time, so you can think you saw everything and then go back and see new stuff there.

Best game I’ve played in a while.

A close second is the new chapters in Monument Valley.  They’re an in-app purchase.  Well worth the money.  I allow myself to play one level of that every night, too.

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My love of Lev Grossman’s Magicians trilogy is well known, but I am excited to see it turned into a Syfy series.

Okay, I’m a little fearful, too, because with the exception of Quentin, no one looks like how I picture them in my head.  And if Alice doesn’t look Alice-y enough for me, it may stop me from watching.  But I’m excited to give it a try.

Because I love magic.

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Our family has gotten hooked on Welcome to Night Vale.  Sometimes we listen around the kitchen table, eating dessert.  Sometimes the ChickieNob and I crouch together on the steps near the baseball field and listen to it while the boys practice.  Sometimes we lay in bed with the phone between us, staring at the ceiling while Cecil Baldwin tells us the day’s news.

We often quote from it or talk about the characters as if they’re friends of ours, living in another dimension within our tiny town.

What are a few of your favourite things?