Birthday Summary

 

I woke up today to find that....

 

 

 

Today is my birthday!

 

Let me tell you about my exciting day.

 

Be prepared to feel like my life is so exciting, and yours drab and/or boring in comparison.

 

Before you hate me, just keep in mind that it isn't my fault.

 

Sometimes life just isn't fair.

 

Blame it on chance.

 

--

 

Last night, my car wouldn't start. 

 

I planned to WALK to work on this, my birthday morning.

 

I cancelled my beloved morning run with my super amazing running buddy

 

 so I would have adequate time

 

 for my replacement workout.

 

This is, after all, still much shorter than my morning run.

 

My roommate offered to give me a ride.

 

My running buddy offered to give me a ride.

 

But I'm on a new self reliance kick. 

 

By jove, I would not impose on others.

 

When I had the ability to get myself to work.

 

Come morning, my car decided to work

 

[Crowd goes wild]

 

I took it to Autozone to run a diagnostic. 

 

Nothing wrong, they said.

 

Well, then, off to work.

 

My license expired, on this, my birthday.

 

But I was prepared.

 

In fact, I was proud of myself. 

 

I had packed all of the necessary documents the night before.

 

I was wearing my most picture-worthy black shirt.

 

It is a 12 minute walk from my office.

 

In the hot, sticky weather.

 

And....

 



 

 

 

Technical difficulties.

 

Yup.

 

So....

 

I took a picture so if I got pulled over,

 

I could show the officer evidence of my due diligence.

 

If he didn't buy it,

 

I'd use it on the judge.

 

I then walked the 12 minutes back to work 

 

In the hot,

 

sticky

 

weather

 

And then I worked...

 

And I got yelled at by angry people.

 

Then I remembered I had brought cookies to celebrate my birthday with my coworkers.

 

But my coworkers didn't know it was my birthday.

I think I ended up eating most of them.

 

(And by them, I mean the cookies, not my co-workers)

 

When I was done working,

 

I went to drive home. 

 

And, surprisingly, my car wouldn't start. 

 

My phone decided this was the perfect time to die

 

because I had, after all, spent all day on Facebook responding to the 119 people who

 

kindly wished me a happiness, and more importantly - fun - on this, my birthday..

 

And texting back the 12 thoughtful happy birthday texts.

 

And e-mailing back the 4 happy birthday e-mails.

 

So I walked the three miles home.

 

In the hot, sticky weather.

 

--

 

I got home to see a gift bag on the kitchen table

 

Addressed to my roommate.

 

Totally kidding

 

It was addressed to me

 

Thank you, Stephanie!

 

Best visiting teacher ever.

 

My plans for the evening got cancelled,

 

since my car wasn't working.

 

They weren't exciting plans,

 

In case you were wondering.

 

I chatted with my brother and sister-in-law via phone

 

after my phone had come back to life

 

Bro and sis-in-law were exhausted

 

Because their baby tried to arrive on my birthday.

 

But she gave up and decided to try again another day.

 

I'll try not to hate her for life.

 

Ate dinner while chatting with my awesome roommate.

 

Called my old roommate Cindy back.

 

Now ready for bed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Year End Review

Last year, I set the goal to do 1,000 small acts of kindness.  If you've read throughout the year, you'd know that I did try - and I think I did achieve my goal despite the fact that everything wasn't recorded.  I am really glad I set the goal.  I think as much as I was inspired by my aunt and uncle in setting the goal, I was even more enriched and fortified in doing so.  I am definitely a better person for the little acts of service I was able to offer the world.

I have a little over a half an hour left before the clock starts again on another year of my life, and this year, I hope to continue to be someone who serves others but my focus will be a little different.  This year I am inspired by my mission president.  You know, he genuinely loved all of us so much.  He was genuinely Christ-like in the way he treated us.  I remember there was one sister who drove us all crazy.  We were talking about her one day, and he defended her.  He discouraged any ill speaking of her without being judgmental, without any lecturing, by simply being his kind-hearted self.  You definitely got the sense that he genuinely cared for her.  I was impressed by this quality of his.  And post mission, as I've talked with other people who served with me, there is story after story of how patient and kind he was with us and the weaknesses and shortcomings he couldn't help but find in us.  I would really like to be more like that.  There was a time in my life when I could be completely trusted in what I said about others.  I would like to get back to that point.

I realized when I saw the Mona Lisa for the first time that life is not about things like that.  It is the epiphanies and things that you experience that change you for the better that are what life is really about.  So many times those moments will never become Facebook posts, but they will be the type of things you talk to your family about during late night talks that expose your heart, and you for what you really are.  Those are your truths, and they are critical things. 

I would write more about these, but it is nearly midnight and I'm too tired to write about them. But this is my personal new years eve.  This coming year will hopefully bring more growth as a person and hopefully I can offer more good to the world.