26

Today is my 26th birthday. Twenty six. Here's something about me: A few weeks before my actual birthday I start saying that I'm my new age. (Like when I was 24 turning 25, I would just stop saying I was 24.) You know, to like test out my new age. See how it felt.

And I didn't do that with 26. A) My birthday totally snuck up on me this year because it was just New Years Eve. JUST. and B) I think I don't want to be 26. Twenty six sounds so old to me. Like 25 is the last year that you can really be excited about being. Whoo! You can finally rent a car! Whoo! Car insurance goes down! Whoo! Quarter of a century!

......and then 26. Such a downer age. Like, "GLAD YOU HAD FUN BEING TWENTY FIVE BECAUSE NOW YOU ARE ONLY FOUR YEARS AWAY FROM THIRTY, YA OLD MAID."

I don't know how turning 26 suddenly makes me feel old and grown up because my car is paid off, I own my home, I have a Bachelor's degree and have completed a semester of grad school. I have a child and my own business. I am married and this list of accomplishments is obviously in no real order.

So, 26. Whatcha got for me? Hopefully only good things. Because my 25th year was definitely my best yet and so 26 has big shoes to fill. But also I'm probably going to just say that I'm 25 for the rest of my life. Because I look like I'm 16 so that should fly for a while.

Twenty six did get a running start into greatness though. I spent the day with my loves having lunch at my most favorite restaurant of all time; we went to our little mountain town and had beers at one of the best ale houses; we stuck our feet in a creek and we had dinner as a family.

I did shatter my iPhone screen like a total loser, though. Maddox plays with that thing and throws it around like it ain't no thang but apparently if I drop it from a foot off the ground it rebels and shatters. Oh well. I'm letting it go because I definitely was speeding in front of a cop (like, real bad) and he did not pull me over and so I feel like the Universe and I, we're sort of even steven. But that happened on my last day of being 25, so I feel like 26 can only go up from there.