September 27

Here is another post-birthday blog entry, as I never got around to logging on yesterday, the actual anniversary of my birth.

Just shy of my eighth birthday, I was the new kid in school (for the first, but definitely not the last, time). I met a girl in my third grade class named Lisa, and while we did not immediately hit it off—mostly because we were competing for the attention of another classmate, Michelle—we did find common ground almost right away.

We were born on the same day: September 27, 1966.

In that same spirit of competition and third grade curiosity, we compared times of birth and established that Lisa was five hours and 40 minutes my senior (a fact with which we were obsessed during our younger years, when we were constantly—and ironically—measuring which of us was the "more mature" of the two).

Thirty-one years later, neither Lisa nor I have the foggiest idea what has become of Michelle. We have, however, maintained the long-ago "best friend" status that we achieved after we got over our initial reticence with one another. In spite of my many moves and several mutual life changes, we stayed connected—except for the five-year hiatus of the late high school and early college years, during which we lost touch. Today, though, we are very much a part of each other's lives.

For me, yesterday marked our 39th birthday. For Lisa, yesterday signified the dawning of our 40th year of life. Semantics, mostly, because it all adds up to the same thing, right? While I'm not really dreading the Big 4-0, I'm happy to bask in this last year of my 30s, for whatever that's worth. Lisa has a more fleshed-out philosophy of aging, though, which you can read about here.

Happy (belated) birthday to us!