Happy Birthday to Me… 41 Things for Age 41

It’s my birthdaaaay, y’all!!  This year I’m turning 41, and I have to say, I’m a little more excited about 41 than I was 40 because… #41 is the title of one of my all-time favorite Dave Matthews Band songs and, therefore, 41 has always been one of my favorite numbers.  Hahahaha.  If I’m going to be in my forties then I might as well be able to be one of my favorite numbers, right?

Every year on my birthday I share random facts about myself, and this will be the ninth year I’ve done it!  That just sounds ridiculous, too… nine years?!  I literally just had to do the math twice because nine sounded like way too many.  How on earth have I been blogging this long?!  Anyhoo, because I’ve shared a total of 292 facts prior to today’s post, it’s nearly impossible for me to think of new things.  I try my best not to duplicate any facts, but it’s bound to happen after all this time.   

Here we go!

 

1/ I wear a necklace every single day, but I don’t take it off or change it for months at a time.  So, whatever you see me wearing today will likely still be around my neck a month later.  I do this with earrings, too, but with earrings, I wear the same pair year-round except for the rare occasion that I change them for an event.  I think I’ve mentioned that in one of these posts already, though.

2/ My belly button is pierced.  Have I ever mentioned that before?  It seems like I would have, but I’m thinking I haven’t.  Anyway, I got it pierced back when I was 22-ish, and I wore a belly button ring until I got pregnant with Jacob.  I put the ring back in after I gave birth to him, but ended up taking it out shortly after that and I haven’t worn one since then.  The hole is still there, and I’m pretty sure I could put a ring back in if I wanted to, but I don’t anymore.  Do girls still pierce their belly buttons anymore?

3/ Including the belly button ring, I have three piercings since I also have one piercing in each ear.

4/ My toxic trait is buying a new puzzle at the start of fall or Christmas and then taking six months to finish it.  Hence, the reason we are currently still working on a puzzle with a fall scene when it is actually almost spring.  Hahahaha.

5/ I never had braces as a kid and now I’m paying for it with my full metal mouth at age 41. 

6/ I drink hot tea every single day, even during the summer.  I drink coffee, maybe like, five times per year.

7/ I leave the teabag in my mug the entire time I drink it because I like the flavor to be as strong as possible.  My British ancestors roll over in their graves every single morning, I’m sure.  #Uncouth

8/ I have always said I would NEVER get a tattoo, but now a very small part of me kind of wants one.  I probably won’t actually do it, but it’s weird how we grow and change the older we get. #NeverSayNever

9/ I rarely eat meat for lunch.  #AvocadoToastForLife

10/ But I love meat.  Especially red meat.  It’s my favorite.  Give me a filet any day!

11/ If you tell me a secret and tell me not to tell anybody, I will take it to the grave.  I am the most loyal person you’ve ever met.  

12/ I am a SIX on the Enneagram.  Six is called “The Loyalist.”  Go figure.

13/ I cry every single time I see someone else cry.  I am a huge empath and seeing someone crying is one of my biggest triggers.

14/ I also cry any time I’m going through something, and someone tries to help or comfort me.  Other people’s compassion makes me cry every single time.

15/ I always fall asleep on my right side. 

16/ I always wake up on my back even though I could never fall asleep on my back.  Only psychos fall sleep on their backs.  Haha.  #Brian

17/ I also always fall asleep within a minute of my head hitting the pillow.  #NeverChange

18/ I like my bacon extra crispy.  If I’m not in danger of breaking a tooth, then I don’t want it.

19/ One of my top choices for baby names for Jacob was Chandler.  I have always loved that name and I really wanted to name him that as an ode to my favorite show – Friends – but Brian shot that down immediately.  Sigh.

20/ I can now not picture Jacob as a Chandler.  Haha.  Although, I suppose if we’d named him Chandler, I’d be saying that I couldn’t picture him being named Jacob, soooo…

21/ I am dying to learn to play the piano.  I had some interest in it growing up in that I liked to tinker with the big keyboard we had, but my interest was never strong enough to take lessons.  Now as an adult, I’m not regretting never learning or anything, but I think it would be SUCH a fun new thing to learn.  You’re never too old, right?

22/ I love film scores.  If you don’t know what a film score is, it’s different than a soundtrack… it’s the classical music that you hear in the background during the actual movie.  Titanic, Pearl Harbor, and Casper are some of my favorites.

23/ I fell asleep to the Casper soundtrack every single night for years.  Do y’all remember that movie?  The 1995 one with Christina Ricci and Devon Sawa?!  It came out when I was 13, and I thought (and still think) Casper’s Lullabye is one of the most beautiful songs I’ve ever heard.   

24/ Casper’s Lullabye was one of the songs that I really wanted to learn on the piano growing up.  If I ever take lessons, you can bet I’ll be learning that one as soon as possible.

25/ Clair de Lune is my very favorite classical piano piece of all-time (movie scores aside).  I will also be learning that assuming my skills can eventually take me that far.  #BigGoals

26/ I have been using the same alarm clock since 1992.  I have already mentioned this in one of these posts before (in 2018), but I thought y’all might like to know that it’s still going strong all these years later after that post.  Haha. 

27/ I have had a huge sweet tooth my whole life, but ever since I had Covid back in October, my sweet tooth has subsided… a lot.  I used to have a handful of dark chocolate peanut M&Ms after lunch every day and then I would have a small bowl of frozen yogurt each night after dinner, but since having Covid I’ve done neither and I don’t even miss it.  So so strange!

28/ I wrote in a journal almost every single day from age eight to age 21, and I have 13 old notebooks full of memories from a huge chunk of my life.  Funny that age 41, I’m still journaling my life, but now for all to see!

29/ I’m always cold. 

30/ Y’all already know I’m an avid concert-goer and live music is basically my favorite thing in the whole universe, but I’m not sure if I’ve ever mentioned what my first real concert actually was.  Back in my early-to-mid teens I was really into classic rock, and when I found out that Kiss was coming to town on my sixteenth birthday weekend, all I wanted more than anything in the world was to see them.  My dad and I ended up going together and it was so much fun.  I had a ringing in my ears for days afterward because it was so loud.

31/ The first time I ever smelled weed was at that concert, too.  Someone near us was smoking it and I distinctly remember my Dad saying, “You smell that?  That’s marijuana.”  Hahahaha.   

32/ And while we’re talking about marijuana, I have never tried it.  I have always been a goody two shoes (which surprises no one, I’m sure) so I never partook when others around me were. 

33/ While I love a full band, my very favorite form of live music is to hear an artist play an acoustic setlist with some storytelling in between songs.  It does not get any better than an acoustic guitar.

34/ That said, my very favorite Dave Matthews Band live album is the Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds Live at Luther College album.  It is the best.  And that one has one of the best renditions of #41 on it everrrr. 

35/ I know y’all probably couldn’t care less about some of these facts, but that’s okay.  Haha.

36/ I used to read the same books over and over as a young adult kind of like how I watch the same movies over and over.  I think it’s a comfort thing.  The book I’ve read the most times is probably Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood by Rebecca Wells. 

37/ I’ve probably read Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin the second most.  If I had to pick a favorite book of all-time, I think it would probably be that one.

38/ I used to read those cheesy Chicken Soup for the Soul books when I was in my late teens.  Do y’all remember those?!  Do they even make those anymore?!  I actually still have a couple of them.  #RelicsFromTheOldenDays

39/ I once won first place in a state-wide drawing contest for kids.  It had something to do with dentistry because we had to draw a picture of ourselves with healthy smiles or something like that.  Lol.  I can’t remember how old I was, but I want to say I was in kindergarten.  I still have that drawing somewhere and I actually came across it a few years ago when I was cleaning out a bunch of stuff.

40/ I get complimented on my handwriting pretty much every time I have to write something for somebody.  I think I’ve mentioned this before, but it just happened last week again, so I thought it was worth mentioning that it is still happening.  Haha.

41/ The older I get, the more obsessed I become with 90’s nostalgia.  I swear, I have listened to more 90’s music than anything else this past year.    

And that’s it, y’all… I can’t believe I actually made it to 41!  That is a lot of facts, so if you are still with me, BLESS YOU.  Haha. 

Now let’s see if I can actually do it again next year!  Haha.

34 Things for Age 34

35 Things for Age 35
36 Things for Age 36
37 Things for Age 37

38 Things for Age 38

39 Things for Age 39

40 Things for Age 40