T Minus One

The day before I turned forty-four seemed like an incredibly normal day.  As I mentioned, it's summer, so I am a one-man entertainment show for my two boys, aged eleven and thirteen.  We decided to go to the Allen Outlet Mall for pizza and a little shopping. We also ran several other errands and went to one of my clothing stores.

At one point during the day my oldest son mentioned that even with my shoes on he was now taller than me.  We looked at the height of the wedge sandals I was wearing and he grew even taller with pride as we approximated the height of the wedge to be about one inch.

As we were walking around I felt my gait was slightly off.  I had gone on a run that morning so I chalked it up to my muscles being tired, but still nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

It wasn't until we arrived at home and I proceeded to go into my closet to take off my shoes and change into more comfortable clothing that I actually looked down.  And that's when it hit me.  I had been wearing two different shoes all day long.  The shock!  The horror!  Well it really wasn't that dramatic of a realization but still, really?

I had been wearing them for hours, we had examined the height of the heel, I had been to one of my own stores and yet no-one, including myself noticed or mentioned that I had on two different flip-flops. I had even been embarrassed all day about how much I was in need of a pedi-cure.  So for the rest of the week I have had to make sure that y shoes matched.  So sad...

The evidence...

Why Forty-Four?

One would think that turning forty-four is not very significant.  You've already passed the dreaded fortieth birthday where you were showered with gag gifts, birthday cards predicting impending doom, and an unlimited budget for a party to end all parties because you still can't believe you made it to forty alive!  

But forty-four?  Not a milestone in any way.  You're still closer to forty than to fifty.  So why has turning forty-four this week turned my life into upheaval?

First of all, my birthday fell on a Tuesday this year.  When you have a working husband, two adolescent boys at home, and it's the beginning of summer, having a birthday on a Tuesday really just means it's going to be the same as every other day of the week, the month, the year.  The difference being is that you wake up to cheers and in the case of my husband, a barrage of incredibly thoughtful gifts. But other than that, you're still mom, it's still summer break, and it's still just a Tuesday.