I'm FREE!

First of all:

Happy birthday to me! Happy birthday to me! Happy birthday dear me! Happy birthday to me!

Yep. It's my birthday today. Can you tell? I am now 33 years old and feel younger and better than I did on my 32nd birthday. And my 31st. And probably my 30th too.

I also graduated from cardiac rehab today. Wo-hoo! I'm free! I'm now officially on my own. I got a "diploma" and everything. I'm going to hang it in my cube at work.

And on this, my 33rd birthday (did I tell you it's my birthday?), I can do more physically than I could on my 32nd birthday. And my 31st. And probably my 30th too.

So I am celebrating with RobbieMax and Will tonight. We're going to the Olive Garden for dinner, where I am going to consume forbidden amounts of fat and sodium as I enjoy my birthday dinner. (Did I tell you it's my birthday?)

I'm starving right now and ready to go. I thought Will and I were going to meet RobbieMax at the Olive Garden right after he got done with work at 5. Nope. RobbieMax claims not to be hungry and wants to wait until 6 to meet. He said he had a late lunch. I am okay with that.

But of course, after we agreed on meeting at 6, I thought about it for a minute. This excuse seemed quite flimsy. I figured out why he wanted to meet later. And my suspicions were confirmed when Will asked me, "Do you want to know the real reason we're meeting at 6?"

RobbieMax has not gotten me a birthday present yet. And neither has Will. On the phone, RobbieMax had Will go into a different room, and I'm sure he asked Will what he wanted to get me. So the hubby is doing a bit of last-minute birthday shopping for me. (Did I say that it's my birthday today?)

I share my birthday with T. S. Eliot, George Gershwin, Olivia Newton-John, Linda Hamilton, Melissa Sue Anderson (she played Mary on Little House on the Prairie), Jim Caviezel (he played Jesus in Mel Gibson's Passion of the Christ), tennis star Serena Williams, a guy from work named Chris, and the lady at the muffin/cookie shop in the skyway. I'm sure there are more, but that's all I could list at the moment. (Have I told you that it's my birthday?)

We celebrated birthdays on Sunday with my parents and my sister, Lynn. My mom's birthday was this past Thursday, the 21. And Will's was on the 7th as you know. RobbieMax and I could not resist getting Will one last present: in honor of this 11th birthday (and the Harry Potter movies, where kids get their Hogwarts letters on their 11 birthdays), we got him a black velvet magician's cape. He loves it. He wears it all of the time and swishes it around like Dracula, or Gerard Butler in The Phantom of the Opera.

Speaking of presents, for the past few years my mother-in-law has been sending us money in the amount of our age instead of presents. On Sunday she asked RobbieMax how old I was this year and he told her. Then she asked him to put me on the phone. The first thing she said when I got on the phone was, "I owe you a dollar." I told her I'd just take the extra dollar that she sent RobbieMax last year. She chuckled at that.

And I've decided that I'm not going to be one of those women who stays the same age for many, many years. My mom did that. She was 39 for so many years I lost track of how old she was. I'm still unsure of her age.

I love my birthday. I figure every year I'm alive and kicking is a reason to celebrate. I'm going to grow old gracefully and not hide the fact that I'm getting older. It helps that I've always looked young for my age. Of course, if I started looking my age, I may be 33 for many years.

Well, I'm off to grab Will from outside and head over to the Olive Garden for dinner. Hopefully RobbieMax will be successful in his shopping excursion and I'll have some presents to open...

Have I mentioned that it's my birthday?