happy birthday to me

As of this morning at 10:28 am, I have lived 12,045 days upon this earth.

I was born in Kentucky to a homemaker and former journalist, and an Army Major and Vietnam veteran helicopter pilot. I had a big sister, three years older and I was to become a big sister myself, three years later, to a brother. I'm a middle child and I have always lived up to the expectations people have for middle children.

I was also a twin. Early in the pregnancy, my mother had a miscarriage. But the next day they ran some tests and said she was still pregnant. When I was born there were two umbilical cords. I sometimes wonder who shared the womb with me for such a brief time. Was it a brother or a sister? Why did they not continue to develop as I did? What would life had been like as a twin? It's one of those mysteries and losses that I'm sure will be explained someday.

So I am thankful for the 33 years I've been given and I hope to live 70 more, at least. I've got a lot to do still. And as Dr. Seuss has said in the Happy Birthday to You book:

Today you are you! That is truer than true!
There is no one alive who is you-er than you!
Shout loud, "I am lucky to be what I am!
Thank goodness I'm not just a clam or a ham
Or a dusty old jar of sour gooseberry jam!
I am what I am! That's a great thing to be!
If I say so myself, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!"