Yesterday it was my birthday...

I hung one more year on the line...

From Have A Good Time by Paul Simon.

Poor Paul. Same tortured/angry/frustrated artist crap that so many other musical geniuses have gone through. He has written some really great songs, though. One of my favorites to listen to.

It really was my birthday yesterday as I write this, but it's not posting until the 14th.

My birthday was on the 11th. As it always is. Two weeks before Christmas.

When I was growing up, it always felt like my birthday sort of disappeared because of the holidaze.
Now I wish my birthday would disappear. Ha.

Not getting any younger. I don't suppose anyone is.

I don't feel upset or anything, though. It's just another birthday in a long string of 'em.

Had a discussion with 'my' kids a few years ago about birthdays. I may have even mentioned it here.

James and Hayden were lamenting that it was a WHOLE YEAR between their birthdays and that it seemed to take forever to get to their next birthday. I told them that mine seemed to come faster and faster.

We decided that a year for them was one sixth of their lives, but for me, one fifty-eighth. Hence the feeling of shorter time between birthdays.

Makes sense, doesn't it?

I turned 60 yesterday.

Funny, when I think of my birthday, what each birthday since 1978 really marks for me is the amount of time since I met my guy.

I met Eric 42 years ago yesterday.
It was my 18th birthday.
He walked into one of my classes with some papers for the teacher.
He was the best looking guy I'd ever seen. I was immediately smitten.
I turned to Steve Klingenberg, the guy next to me, and said, "OH MY GOD! Who is that?"

He shrugged and said, annoyed, "How the hell should I know?"
Which was funny. I laughed.

Eric told me that he was pretty taken with me as well on that day.
We both clearly remember our first meeting.

We just celebrated our 40th wedding anniversary.

Time flies like an arrow... fruit flies like a banana.

::snort::

I had to go to the DMV (open for appointments only right now) and renew my license. I had an appointment for 2:50 PM, but arrived about 25 minutes early. Not a great idea, but the rest of the delay wasn't really my fault.

Apparently they're as efficient as other government entities, and they'd scheduled everyone's break at 2:45. Everyone except the door guard/greeter, the photographer and ONE clerk.

There were 20 people waiting indoors and six lined up outside by the time the line started moving again.

Found a chair in the lobby and wished I'd brought a book.

I'm not one to take out my phone and play, so I was a little bored.

But I like people watching. One thing about the DMV, at least every time that I've been? There are usually some interesting people to watch.

This time was no exception. My nearest neighbors were a teenage girl and her dad. She was taking her driving test for the second time, having failed at her first attempt a few weeks ago. She was cheerful about it, they discussed things for her to watch for and sounded pretty positive.

While we were waiting, a gentleman was dropped off by the big glass doors.
He had a white cane and no eyes.
There were just two dry holes where his eyes should have been.
He did not wear glasses to cover it.

He was escorted in by the lady who was stationed at the door, she took him over to the service desk. She explained to the lady at the counter that he was there to be photographed for a state-issued ID card.

While she was explaining that to the lady at the counter, the teen girl and her dad were still deep in conversation. The teenager hadn't noticed the gentleman at all.

He was escorted past the area where we were seated, and the girl suddenly stopped talking with her dad to watch his progress.

The blind man went to the photo area on the other side of the lobby and the girl turned to her dad. In an incredulous tone, she said, "How does he get a driver's license???!!"

I had to look down into my lap and act like I didn't hear her, I didn't want to snort or laugh loudly.

But it did crack me up.

So I did have to wait awhile, but to be fair, I showed up nearly half an hour early. So if you deduct those 30 minutes and know that I was out of there at about 3:20, I only had to spend half an hour total.

Oh, and 70 bucks.