For my birthday, I usually like to throw parties or plan fun events. Celebrating birthdays was the thing when I was in my twenties. Big parties, lots of drinks, lots of fun and chicanery. Even last year when I was feeling not so well, I wanted to see all of my friends, so I planned an ax throwing thing. I ended up canceling my own birthday party because I was anxious and just didn’t feel up to it health-wise as it was only four months after I had finished my chemo. So Colm and I stayed in, ordered food, and watched movies. He ended up proposing to me that night (I had no idea!), even though I ruined his plans.

This year, I knew I wouldn’t be able to have any kind of birthday celebration. Instead of collecting all my friends and throwing them into my house, we stayed home and ordered in again. We then went stargazing at our secret spot, well, almost our secret spot. The spot is closed in certain months because the roads are covered and snow and ice. We spent the evening looking at constellations and searching for aliens. Though we didn’t see any this time (a story for another post), I had the best time. We took a couple of photos, one of my favorites I included at the top of this post.

This finally felt like I found exactly how I like to spend my birthdays if I can’t solo travel. Laying low is so nice, and it’s my damn birthday after all. It was like I was proving that I had friends to celebrate with, which originates from my birthdays as a kid when no one came except my bestie, Haley (love you, guh!). I guess no one wanted to watch a Xena Warrior Princess marathon with me. Obviously they didn’t know that great 90s shows included fight scenes, war cries, and spotty mythology. Realizing this allowed me to let all that playground shit go, and do the damn thing that I wanted to do. Thanks, thirties!

How do you like to celebrate your birthday?

xMae