It’s been a good day.

It started slowly as we took our time climbing out of bed, enabling each other to be late taking turns hitting snooze. Walking to the office behind schedule, we missed the group walk to Starbucks, but Kelly and I found our way over shortly after, passing those returning. I treated myself to a larger than normal iced chai that pleased taste-buds and chased some lingering sleep away.

At the office, Angela kindly delivered me delicious oatmeal-butterscotch cookies baked in trade for a “Fire Extinguisher” sign I earlier liberated from an abandoned space. Work today had me off a critical path, so stress was lighter, though I’m becoming harder to phase with work anyway.

I love my job, but I’m experiencing a life-perspective adjustment since spending a week with Kelly’s family surrounding her father’s recent death, and we’re also anxious about our parenting prospects as Kelly continues to grow with our first child. Those events have contributed to an awareness for the first time that I can remember: I feel older on my birthday.

Which likely encouraged the desire to break from the office around 3 with Hans today to ride the nearby Riverfront Trail. We pushed each other pretty hard, and the physical exertion was a welcome burn. I’ve got plenty of weight to lose before I truly feel healthy, but regularly exhausting myself on the bike does wonders for the brain. The physical benefits are of course a plus, and improvement just means I’ll get/have to go faster and farther.

After the ride comes the hunger. Kelly asked me to pick dinner, so I selected comfort food at North St. Louis’ Crown Candy Kitchen for a simple egg salad sandwich and an amazing butterscotch malt. I comfortably found my fill, which unfortunately required leaving some malt behind, but my happy belly thanked me for the food and for not overdoing it like last time. We grabbed up a couple dark chocolate covered Oreo for dessert later at Hans and Kristan’s during some TV and laptop browsing.

And now I sit in our apartment, in bed with the laptop writing this. Throughout the day I was wished a happy day from family and friends (Mom even sang Happy Birthday over voicemail while I was riding), and it looks like one came through.

Next year, everything will be different. I’m not talking about the “big three oh,” because that means nothing to me, but instead of the apartment we’ll have been in our downtown condo for about a year, and we’ll be parents to a 6 month old! I cannot even imagine what the next birthday holds.