it's the final countdown

I kind of wish my birthday had been today.

I've had a crick in my neck the past 2 days and when I woke up this morning, I couldn't get up. No matter which way I turned or flexed, I was using some muscle in the left side of my neck and shoulder that was screaming at me to STOP. So Tom had to hoist me up and then I moped and whimpered for a while... and he took the day off work and set me up with an appointment to a Chinese massage therapist he's been going to downtown. The appointment was at 1 p.m. HEAVEN. It was not a gentle massage. But I could feel things moving and relaxing and getting better. She didn't stop at my neck; she did my back, my arms, hands, legs, hips, feet and scalp and I got a face mask, too. Then she refused to have us pay her, saying it was an early birthday present.

She works from her home on a pretty casual basis, although she does have a massage table and all the oils and stuff. I've only met her once before, and today when she told me to get undressed, she didn't leave the room... but I just said to myself "a body is a body" and pulled my dress and bra off and hopped on the table (which was set up in the living room of a neighbour of hers who she was dog-sitting for).

After the massage she insisted on taking us all to a Chinese ice cream place that has this ice cream that is basically shaved frozen milk... I asked for mango flavoured for the kids, and it became a huge pile of shaved milk ice and shaved frozen mango. I think. And with corn flakes and strawberries on top. Never had anything quite like that!

Then when we drove home the kids both fell asleep (they had a picnic in a park and drove Tom nuts while I was getting massaged - and yes, at one point she was punching me. She punched my calves to encourage circulation). LB woke up when we got home and was full of energy again, but LG slept on, and Tom insisted that I nap, too.

SPOILED!!

So I napped and then did a bunch of tidying up and sorting of random bits of paper in preparation for a birthday celebration that is going down this weekend. Not mine. LB's belated birthday party. Just a few kids that she considers friends, and their parents. I hope I can do this. I've never hosted a b-day party before.

* * *

Well, this is it. Tomorrow I am thirty years old. I'm compiling a list of all that I did and accomplished in my 20s. In my head it's quite a list.

I feel nervous about turning thirty. I shouldn't. I am happy with my 20s and all that I saw, did and accomplished. It was quite a decade. This next one will bring with it the challenges and joys (I hope) of school-aged children and (ulp!) a teenager. My hope is that it brings a new home, a different job, and many travels, even if they are all within our own province.

But most of all I hope I never stop being a kid, cracking jokes and bugging my husband, rolling down hills with LB and LG and squeezing every last drop of fun and funny there is out of each and every thing I do.

Source: http://bluedashboardlight.blogspot.com/2010/08/its-final-countdown.html