41

I'm in my prime!*

What an amazing year it's been, too. No place I wish I could be (existentially speaking), nothing else I'd rather be doing. No other life I wish I was living.

Last year, on this day, I was offered this job.

A year before that, I was offered a book contract for the tourist book.

A year before that, well, nothing special happened.

A year before that, I broke my arm while roller blading, just as the weekly, 11 am, air raid siren went off (that's the mid-west for you).

A year before that, I was depressed...the year before that, too, come to think of it.

The year before that, I visited Walden.

The year before that, I was in New York City.

Since last year, I got this job, moved to a big city where I actually could afford to live, moved into an apartment on the alleged 20th floor with a great view, was appreciated at my new job, had my tourist book come out, impressed the President of the college with my Douglass paper, impressed my chair and dean by just being me, nearly fell off Lookout Mountain, saw a play at the Folger (yeah, to most people: "big deal." To me: something I've wanted to do since I was 20), didn't fly a plane twice (because that would have been illegal), been to New York, Minnesota and Mississippi (and points in between), met former members of SNCC, met just some fabulous people in general including some wonderful bloggers both online and in person, and actually felt sort of alive rather than waiting to be alive.

I use this space to bitch and moan quite a bit. I'm also a rather gloomy and dark sort of person anyway. When I was a kid, my mother used to call me "Eyeore," when she wasn't calling me "Sarah Bernhardt." Which is to say that no one in my life will ever beleive me on this, but I am actually glad to be where I am for the first time in maybe ever.

Today, I have to work; but then, a week of celebrating and cake.

Let's see what happens next!

*Geddit? Forty-one is a prime number. I'm 41 today. I'm prime! I crack me up!