Vampires and Birthdays!

Happy Birthday to Me! Today is my birthday, my 48th, and I am not sure what I think about that. Why does 48 seem so much “older” than 47? I know that when I am 68 I will be smacking myself upside the head for even having a twinge over 48 but, for today, I can reflect on life and getting older.

Perhaps instead of thinking about that I will think about … being a vampire. Slightly off topic you might guess but you will see that it is actually bang on! I have been reading a set of books lately featuring vampires and other creatures. They are actually quite amusing (Sookie Stackhouse books by Charlaine Harris) and I have enjoyed them immensely. In them vampires have “come out of the closet” because they now have synthetic blood that is basically as good as the real thing so people are “safe” to be around vampires now. Anyway, in the stories the vampires look how they did when they were “turned”. It got me thinking … oh my God! … If I were “turned” now I would have to live with these thighs and these little chicken-finger hanging down flabby arms for eternity (or until I was staked or got caught by sunlight) and that is just too scary to think about. I mean if there was EVER a reason to get in shape I can’t think of a better one than having to live for eternity carrying around this extra 10 pounds and looking at saddlebags in the mirror each day. Go and look at yourself nude in a full length mirror tonight and just reflect on how happy (or not) you would be if you had to live with your current body for the next 100, 200, 1000 years.

And then I think, is it better to get “turned” at 70 or 80 when you might look like a shriveled old thing for eternity but that you actually get to live for eternity or better to get “turned” at 20 looking amazing but not having really “lived” at all. I still can’t decide. I also have to really think about whether I would take the existing 40 or so years that I have left with all the associated aging issues over getting turned (the quotation marks were starting to annoy me) with my current thighs but getting to live for eternity. It is a tough one (I will let you know when I decide).

Megara (my sister-in-law, if you remember) said that she was ashamed of me (life coach) looking at this issue with such a glass-half-empty attitude. She pointed out that even if I had to live with the extra 10 pounds and the thighs and the flabby tummy that I wouldn’t ever have to worry about GAINING weight. I would never actually look worse than I do now. She was right, of course, that is definitely a consideration. That said, this is MY birthday vampire fantasy and I can look at it any way that I want to, being a life coach notwithstanding! And, that said, I will add it as part of my decision equation.

I would love to hear what y’all (a little Texan there for all y’all) think about this most pressing philosophical issue (of today anyway).

Thank you to everyone who sent me birthday wishes, birthday telephone calls, birthday cards, birthday presents, birthday flowers, birthday visits, birthday lunches and birthday dinners. It was a wonderfully great day made even better by all of my terrific friends and family. Thank you!!!

Here’s hoping that your day was even ½ as great as mine was!

Ella