They say it's your birthday!

I have a birthday coming up. I can't say I much care. I plan on the fateful day to wake up, go to the gym and work out, head to the office, work, eat a bit, work some more, come home, spend some time with my wife and then head to sleep. If that sounds to you like what a perfectly normal, unremarkable, unexciting, non-eventful day should sound like, you're right. That's exactly what it is.

Last week my wife asked me what I want for my birthday. I was silent for only a moment. Then I knew exactly what the answer was. "I have no idea. You don't have to get me anything. There's nothing I need." And I meant it. What's more, my wife knew I meant it because she couldn't think of anything I really wanted, either. There certainly were things she wants me to have, things that she'd be happy to get for me, but that's not what she was asking. She wanted to know what I want, and honestly, there isn't anything.

When I was a kid I used to look forward to my birthday. I remember when I was about 6 or 7, old enough to understand dates and times, and for a few weeks before my birthday I was eagerly looking forward to the arrival of the big day. I don't recall what I was expecting to happen. Maybe it was that a halo of light would envelop me, maybe I'd be on the receiving end of lots and lots of constant attention, maybe I'd be exempt from the normal rules that other people had to follow. Who knows? Imagine my disappointment when I realized halfway through the day, as I sat in school listening to lessons that sounded depressingly like almost all the other lessons. I didn't feel any different, nothing about the day was any different. I got some cards and a few gifts and that was it. My birthday was not this great experience. It was just another day.

This has been a pretty useful recognition as I've gotten older. Birthdays really aren't a big deal, even for insurance purposes. After all, the insurance company considers you a year older when you get within six months of your next birthday - they go by whichever birthday is closest. Birthdays won't count now for a while, until they start making a difference for social security, IRA or other retirement-related considerations. But I'm nowhere near ready to retire yet, and don't even want to think of being ready for retirement, so that means no significant birthdays.

There was, however, a recent exception. One year my wife told me I should go away with the guys to golf camp. Now that was a good gift. Of course, the other three guys who went with me (two years later, when we finally managed to get our acts together) weren't going for birthday presents. They just wanted to get away to play and learn golf.

Birthdays, though, are pretty ho-hum events in my life. My wife, by contrast, loves her birthday, and likes getting extra attention when hers rolls around. I'm not sure what she gets out of it, but I'm willing to take her word for it that she likes it, so I indulge her. Not just with gifts, either, but with a with a bit of extra attention and solicitude. It makes her happy, so I'm glad to do it (which raises the question of why I don't give her more attention all the time, but that's an issue to ponder another day............).

So, you might ask, what do I have planned for my birthday? I don't know. My calendar is in the office, and if I have anything planned it's in there.