To New Beginnings!

Dear Reader, 

It was recently my birthday. In the days leading up to my birthday, I have a tendency to reflect on birthdays past. Will this year be a good one or will it be totally, utterly depressing? My birthday day this year was fine, not the most memorable, but also not the worst.

This year my birthday fell on a weekday, which meant that I spent the most of my birthday at the office. While, statistically, it makes sense that the overwhelming majority of my birthdays would fall on weekdays, in reality, this was my first birthday that I spent at work. Last year I was at home for my birthday, the year before I visited friends, and before that I was not working, but rather in school. So, perhaps, this may be the first of many office birthdays (yay adulthood!…). The people in my office are nice though. We have a handout that lists all staff birthdays color-coordinated by month. This October, we celebrated three birthdays (we each got cupcakes!).
After leaving the office, I met up with my boyfriend and we got dinner and (perhaps one-too-many) drinks on a work night. The restaurant was a cute (but pricey) place near Inman Square. At some point late into the dinner my boyfriend and I resorted to people watching. One couple we saw was a pair of 20-something-year old women who seemed to be on a date.

They looked to be interested in each other romantically, however, they weren’t touchy-feely about it. The women were there for a long time, we left before them, even though we had arrived after them. The length of time that they sat together signaled to me that they were dating. For my boyfriend and I, we live together, so sitting to eat for an hour or two is enough if we are just going to go home together afterwards. However, for these two women, they might not know when they will see each other next if they are not seriously dating, so perhaps they wanted to prolong their evening. My boyfriend also mentioned that since they chose to go out on a weeknight that this could signal that the date was intended to be casual (especially considering that they arrived at the restaurant pretty early, before 6pm). One last indicator that this was an early, casual date, was that the women opted to sit at the bar rather than at a table. Perhaps they chose the bar, because there is less pressure to stare into each other’s eyes the whole night if they were to be sitting side-by-side.

I don’t know anything more about these two women than what I witnessed that night, however, I hope that they end up happy. Beginnings are inherently exciting times. For them, a potential new relationship, and for me a new year. In addition, this is also my first birthday spent together with my boyfriend! October 2018 – October 2019 in my life has been… interesting. In this time, I have started a new romantic relationship, started 5 new jobs, quit 1 job and left another (term appointment ended), started a blog(!), and have traveled to four countries (some on more than one occasion). This year in my life had its ups and downs and I look forward to moving forward. 

So, let’s cheers, Dear Reader, to new beginnings!

Love,

Raven