I successfully turned 26 years old last Friday.
To celebrate I had lunch with my mother and spent the evening with my friends.
One of my new friends learned it was my birthday Friday evening and insisted on baking me a cake. So on Sunday when I came to visit, she surprised me with a delightful, homemade chocolate cake. Her secret ingredient was adding a touch of espresso.
Sunday afternoon, however, was spent celebrating Thanksgiving. My great uncle Chuck Rosacker encouraged me to write about the conversations which were shared.
My brother Nathan has a new girlfriend, so we swapped horror stories from Nathan’s previous relationships, along with his bad driving endeavors.
Nathan's new girlfriend has the same name as a previous one, so we had some fun giving them a hard time.
For the first time, my Uncle Chuck learned he was in the newspaper 50 years ago. My sister Jessica puts together the Looking Back/Archive sections for the paper and Chuck reads those every week. When he was sent overseas during his time in the service, there was a news blurb sharing the details. He never saw it because he was, well, overseas. The first thing he did on Sunday when he saw me was thank me for putting that in the paper. I gave credit to my sister, feeling grateful he reads the paper.
In my haste, I’ve glossed over Saturday night.
How could I forget the Bluejay Blast dinner?
The first three people I saw when I arrived assumed I was there working. I tell Deb (Bently), that not every social gathering or event either of us attends needs to be work.
I was not working, I was there to enjoy good food, good company, and a lively auction.
For the second year in a row, I joined Matt Petsinger at his table with Becky and company.
The food was divine. My only complaint was the music was loud. It was difficult to have conversations. Nonetheless, good conversation was also had.
Monday was spent writing. Tuesday was spent constructing the newspaper. And Wednesday, more of the same.
Dad and I planned to go to Perkins for our Thanksgiving on Thursday.
Oh, I should reflect on turning 26.
After working nearly every day for a year and a half, I was forced to slow down beginning in April of this year. Physical health problems required me to work less, and that was difficult. I learned something important because of it though. I learned it’s possible to delegate work or to say no to some requests; the lesson became clear when I simply could not do any more. The biggest thing I’ve learned this year is that my health is more important than a perfect newspaper (not that a perfect paper exists). If I am not healthy, I can’t put the paper together. I’ve started taking more time for myself, and now, more weeks than not, I do take an entire day off.
What I’m trying to say is you can always spend time working. But you can never get that time or your health back when it’s gone.
Here’s wishing you a Happy Thanksgiving!
“Time is what we want most, but what we use worst.” - William Penn