The GeekHiker

So today is my birthday.  The big ‘ol lifeclock will tick over to 34 at about 4:32 this afternoon.

On the plus side, I’ve made it four years past where my lifeclock should be according to Logan’s Run.  Good movie, by the way.  I bought the DVD for six bucks a few months back and was surprised how well it stands up after 30 years.

And bonus points to you if you recognize the song lyric in the post title.

Still, 34.  I haven’t quite decided how I feel about this yet.

Most years, I haven’t thought too much about my birthdays.  They just kinda ticked on by, life rolled along.

But I can’t claim to be in my early-thirties anymore.  Nope, it’s mid-thirties for the next couple of years, baby.  For better or for worse, that’s where I’m at.

For whatever reason, I wasn’t looking forward to this birthday for the past few weeks.  I thought about the number, which is just a stupid, silly number after all, and I felt older.

The fact that I’m finding gray hairs isn’t helping much either.

So, today, I am both down and up about it.  Up in that I don’t feel physically that old.  Oh, sure the knees hurt a little more when out hiking, but, hey, that’s what trekking poles are for.

Overall, though, I’ve still got my health.  Thanks in no small part to the tons of water I drink each day.  Trust me, you don’t want to know the details as to why that is, but simply put: water does the body good.

And I’ve learned a lot along the way, especially given the events of 2007 thus far.

Still, I’m single, which I’m not fond of, but sorta okay with at the same time.  I think part of that is my realization that my life is different than what I saw growing up, and how much that is influencing my feelings about my life now.  My Dad, by this age, had been married for 10 years and had a (ahem, admittedly perfect) six year old son.  His parents had been the same way, his grandparents the same way.  I think, when you grow up with that kind of background as an environment, you subconsciously expect that your life will turn out the same way: you’ll be married in your early twenties, have a house and two cars, whatever.

When your life doesn’t turn out like that, well, it’s hard not to think that you didn’t do something right.  That you screwed up somewhere along the way.  Particularly when you’ve watched your cousins follow that other path in their lives.  And I think that that dichotomy is something that I’m only just now coming to terms with.

But I did write to Something Girl, and she wrote back indicating that she was busy, but would like to hang out again in the future (in what context, of course, I still have no idea).  So maybe I haven’t had the same path as so many others.  At least I’m still plugging away at it.

Kinda wish I owned a house by now though, but, well, I live in California, so I’m pretty much screwed on that front until I’m married.

And I do wish I wasn’t having to work so damn hard at the gym to keep the weight off.  Ten years ago, that wasn’t a problem.  Cursed slowing metabolism.

But people at work wished me a happy birthday.  And I got nice cards from the family, and lovely e-mails from friends.  And the Parentage called, because that’s the kind of parents they are.

So, overall, I’m pretty okay with thirty-four, now that it’s here.  Better than I felt in the weeks leading up to it.  Tomorrow, I’m sure, I will feel like nothing much has changed at all just because August 7th happened to roll by.

And I bought myself presents because, dammit, I can:

I re-upped my Sierra Club membership.  Because as a GeekHiker, I should.

I joined the Nature Conservancy.  I like their approach: they don’t just bitch to Congress on how to spend taxpayer money, they actually raise money and buy the land they want to save.

And finally, I bought this:

It’s been on my Amazon list since it came out over two years ago, but no one has ever bought it for me.  It’s pricy, it’s not useful or practical, but I wanted it and I know that I’ll get great joy from it.  So, I bought it for myself, and I fully intend to spend this evening doing nothing but sipping a fine small-brew, cane sugar soda and reading about the adventures of a little boy and his tiger.

And maybe wishing, just a little bit, that I was just an imaginative little boy once again, too.