Three and a Half Decades

[personal]

Okay, so it's my birthday. I had more people acknowledge it than I expected. It was nice, but to be honest, it actually caught me unawares, a bit. Something about being halfway through your fourth decade. Certainly I'm finding this birthday harder than my thirtieth.

Small things have been reminding me that I'm getting old. A few weeks ago, I fell down. Hey! Stop laughing. I mean, how often do you totally lose your balance and actually fall right over, feet flying upwards like a cartoon encounter with a banana peel? Really, how often?

When you're younger, not only is it less painful when you fall, it happens more often. So a few weeks ago, I was jumping out of bed, and maybe my foot caught a patch of dust, but it slid right out from under me and my upper body came crashing down on my right shoulder. I had a small gash on my foot where it scraped under a bookcase, and a slightly bruised shoulder. But the odd part was as I was tumbling down: I was thinking, "hmm, this is an odd sensation," "gravity is turning sideways," "hey, I've felt this before," "right! I'm falling!"

Another thought was, "wow, I don't think I've ever had so much time to have so many thoughts about falling, while I was falling. It sure is a long way down."

And finally, "oh, this is gonna hurt."