The inevitable birthday post

My personal odometer rolled over to 29 years early this morning and while I'd like to think this helps me put my life in perspective, gives me a degree of security in who I am as a human being or mellows me a bit, I'm only left with one overriding thought.

I only have one more year to act like a complete jackass and still write it off in future discussions as, "Yeah, that was something I did in my 20s... pretty stupid, right?"

In terms of great escapes from bad decisions, dumb stuff done in your 20s is trumped only by dumb stuff you've done in your teens.

In all honesty, 29 is a pretty in-between age in the grand scheme. Once you hit the biggies of 16, 18 and 21, things slow down quite a bit and aren't quite as exciting until you get to retire.

I'm told that you can pretty much retire on your birthday that year, which I think is possibly the greatest birthday present any one could ever ask for. Back in the days at the newspaper, I couldn't ever imagine retiring and always secretly hoped I'd die after a big issue made its way out the door, but after being stuck in cube farms since then, I can't wait for a big "See you later, suckers" retirement day.

It'll be like Christmas for the elderly - I doubt I'll be able to sleep the night before.

(Image from: EdwardFrench.com)