44 - That is my age as of today, March 8th, 2021 😁. I don't always celebrate my birthdays in a big way, but I do appreciate getting older and am not dismayed by it, it sure beats not getting older! Here are some birthday memories that have come to mind recently and others I have found in my recent 'detective work'.
43 - 2020 - I 'dragged' Matt, Klara, John, and Rosa to our local Scottish pub for Haggis before the lockdown really took effect. Thanks for humoring me 😀!
42 - 2019 - Oma sent a box of goodies from Germany, we always love those! Corona has made sending things almost impossible 😒.
41 - 2018 - I found a picture of a washer and a dryer in my files, which was taken on March 8th, 2018. I presume that it was my birthday gift that year, a washer and a dryer in our own house 😂. Thank you, Matt!
40 - 2017 - It was a big round birthday and 2017 was also the last time we were all in Germany. My family put together 40 little gifts for me, 10 from each of my three siblings and 10 from my mother, which I opened when we were in Germany in April that year. It is a 'tradition' we have tried to keep for my other siblings who reach the mark. David turned 40 in 2019 and Annika this year but she is still waiting for her gifts - thanks to Corona. My brother Julian's turn is next year.
37 - 2014 - A picture from my 37th birthday, thanks to Rosa, with Klara age 2.5.
34 - 2011 - I remember John sending me flowers to work in school that year, I was about three months pregnant with Klara then. I also think we had a combined St. Patrick's Day and birthday celebration.
29 - 2006 - I was living on Cape Cod in 2006 and a Russian friend gave me flowers on my birthday. I was a little surprised until I learned that International Women's Day is a holiday in Russia that is celebrated quite widely and it is customary to give female friends and relatives, flowers that day.
28 - 2005 - My first birthday on Cape Cod, and there was, as far as I can remember, a good snowstorm that day. Technically I have a winter birthday, but in Germany, Ireland, and the UK, by the time March comes around, spring is well on its way, and winter is done. So when, upon moving to Cape Cod, I had a first real winter birthday I was very excited! And I learned a lesson about winter that day. I had dinner at a friend's house and came out to a car the doors of which were frozen shut, so I proceeded to pour warm water on the doors in order to defrost them ... big mistake!! The water froze almost instantly upon contact and the doors were even more stuck. Somehow I got in the car, eventually ... Lesson learned!
25 - 2002 - In 2002 I was living in England, but I have this vague memory that my siblings gave me a card, that said something like: 'Congratulations on making it half-way to 50!' It seems so long ago now that it is somewhat hard to believe I am not 50 yet ... I also have a memory of celebrating my birthday in the Cowherds Pub in Southampton, probably roughly that year. My friend and housemate Laura handed me a gift and proudly said that I'd never guess what's in it. I felt the gift and said, 'It's a kite', and I was right 😉! It was a cool gift and I had that kite for the longest time, but somewhere in my moves, it did eventually get lost. (Added note - my mother found the kite at her house after she read this blog.)
21 - 1998 - I was living in Galway in 1998, sharing a house with three Irish lads and two girls. We had a house party for my 21st birthday that year. Lots of dancing and drinking happened, no doubt. My mother took a picture for me of the birthday breakfast table at home in Germany in honor of my 21st birthday, I was of course not there for that breakfast, but special breakfasts have always been a family tradition for birthdays.
17 - 1994 - This was my first of two birthdays in boarding school in Dublin and I do have a diary entry from the day. It appears I had a nice day, however, I was feeling shitty and pissed off none-the-less and nothing would cheer me up. I think it was mostly people who were annoying me, but the diary entry is not very specific. I was just not feeling very positive and just wanted to be far away elsewhere. Having said that, the entry from the next day March 9th is a lot more positive. It seems that I had an exit from school that day and met with a family friend, Wiltrud, in Dublin to do some shopping and have lunch. 'Best day of my life!' according to the diary. Wiltrud gave me perfume as a present and I loved it. Ah, yes, the little pleasures of 'escaping' boarding school for a few hours... On March 10th I entered an extract from a birthday letter from my Dad into my diary:
Life is like a hike through mountains: at times steep and breathtaking escarpments and cliffs, at times a beautiful view of the extraordinary scenery of stone and then, in turn, gentle valleys with lush green meadows, romantic villages with church spires in their midst, and you always meet people with whom you share the path for a while. It may not be many, but enough to enjoy everything in cheerful tranquility. On this journey, there will be more questions than there are answers. One will encounter beauty and nastiness, but all beings are part of the same nature, of which we carry a part in us. - One thing, however, you should never forget, that is to dream, to listen, to experience from warm and cold. Not the intellect determines our life, it is our feelings. The role of the intellect is only to objectively assess what has happened, so as to not end up in a trap unprepared.
I liked this passage from his letter - hence I wrote it in my diary. It may not be the best translation ... the original in German is at the bottom of the page.
Early teens - early 1990s - One of my favorite birthday celebration memories! I don't have an exact year for this, but it must have been in my early teens, maybe around 14? My mother organized a treasure hunt for my birthday party. She hid clues all over town and it must have taken my friends and me several hours to find the treasure hidden in a hollow tree stump. She must have spent a lot of time organizing everything and putting all the clues in place. I think it is such a fantastic idea! I am wondering if at some point I can do something like that for Klara?!
