birthday ketchup

so today is my 28th birthday, but first i'll start with the ketchup.

we had a fine weekend filled with good finds at the thrift store, picking of redbud blossoms (yes, they are edible. and yes they do grow here in utah.), hanging out with family (which included grilled salmon!), celebrating mother's day with my mom, dying my newly shorn hair red, and finding mushrooms in our yard (yes, those are edible too). we also got to celebrate from a distance david's phd graduation. yea, david!

so back to today. i love celebrating birthdays and am a firm believer that they don't need to be confined to just one day. in fact, may is really kind of a big celebratory month since it's my birthday and our anniversary. so far, to celebrate today i've worked a 1/2 day (instead of a full day) and went on a long run. when brian comes home soon we're going to go up into the canyon to walk along the provo river. the goal will be to be outside and enjoy the beautiful sunny weather and see birds. it will be easy to enjoy the weather...but i just hope beyond hope we'll see some birds. then tonight we're going out for mexican food with my mom. there's a place in slc that's supposed to have good mole. so i'm willing to go and judge whether or not it is good!

so turning 28 (and maybe because my hs reunion is this summer) makes me think of what was going on 10 years ago when i turned 18. without going back and looking at a journal, here is what i remember.

mom made me strawberry/whip cream waffles for breakfast.

i didn't have to go to school until like 10am or so since i no longer had to attend calculus class (i wasn't taking the ap exam).

for some reason i felt kind of bad that morning, but it turned out i wasn't sick.

during lunch i ate in the hallway with my friends and they gave me presents.

that evening there was a home track meet. i ran the 1500 and probably the 4x400 relay. i don't remember anything about the relay, but the 1500 was the fastest i ever ran that length. i ran a 5:14, which i was proud of. there's a pretty scary picture of me to commemorate how "good" i felt after finishing the race.

that night for dinner we grilled chicken and steak, had homemade rolls, potatoes, jello, corn on the cob, and kool-aid. of course, all of that was my choice (obviously there did need to be two types of meat). then we had cake and ice cream.

i don't remember how warm it was (probably not very warm), but i do remember it wasn't raining. and that was always a birthday miracle living on the oregon coast.

so that unclear picture is me, my dad, and my brother kyle enjoying my very meaty 18th birthday dinner.