Unfolding Anyway

I’m not one to remember my age. Wait. Am I 43 or 44 now? Out of everything stuck in my head, it just doesn’t seem to be a priority when I can merely do the math. 45, however, seems to be a nice round number, and with my son now 18, it seems like a milestone year.

I started celebrating Labor Day weekend, typically the last warm weekend before my birthday, with professional photographs at the beach – just me and “the girls.” The plan was to get a few solo, with Curie, with Ada, and then all three of us – likely sitting on the beach with Ada… well, being Ada. Maybe a shot of my new Raven Rainbow Books tattoo, maybe a few close ups laughing, not the pretty posed pictures you put on a Christmas card but the ones that help you remember a milestone year.

That’s not quite what happened. I had somehow forgot Labor Day weekend, the last warm weekend in Seattle, would be packed. There was a wedding, a baby shower, several parties, hundreds of families, a boy who got scared and threw a ball at Curie, a woman who literally leaned over to pick up Ada – not realizing their leashes were combined… or that you don’t do that without asking. It was chaos, especially for a puppy and a young dog with some trauma. Do you ever have that moment where you decide now is the time to crawl back in bed and start over tomorrow? Well, this photographer wasn’t going to let that happen – even though I offered to pay the cancellation fee.

The result? An injured hand/fingers, two dogs who injured each other accidentally slipping on rocks, an exhausted Frenchie who couldn’t keep her food/water down for four days, and a puppy who photographed like – well a puppy on cocaine. “I hope you’ll give me 5 stars,” he said. *sigh* It was so horrific I spent an hour sitting in the car trying to get my zen back and creating a Plan B. After all, didn’t I take 3 days off my birthday week? Let’s go to Rainier, starting with Reflections Lake, and get some pictures with a tripod over the course of 3 days. What could go wrong?

See the mountainside? No? Me neither. At least there’s Reflections Lake. Remember the beautiful lake where you see Mount Rainier both behind the lake and as a reflection?

Yup. That’s it. If you squint just right, you’ll see the bottom 6 feet of this 14,000-foot mountain just over the trees, See it? You would think at 45, I would learn my lesson.

Sorry, Curie. I can’t see anything either.

Over the course of 3 days, we drove through clouds – literally. The rain came in just minutes after we arrived, but it wasn’t just the lake. Everything 10 minutes after entering the park was covered in thick, good-luck-seeing-that-deer-until-you’re-within-3-feet-of-it clouds.

Once I gave up on seeing mountains or taking those “fur” family pictures, we had a good time stopping at every scenic point just to get out of the car and see the girls’ reactions.

I did finally see my first raven in person – and yet somehow forgot to take my raven tattoo picture. *sigh* Oh well. It was majestic nonetheless and scared the crap out of Ada.

She and Curie also saw their first BIG dog – ahem “elk” – not at the park but down the street from our rental house. Hey, you take what you can get.

Will I go back? Most definitely. Will I wait until the dry season next summer? Most definitely. We did have a good time, but it felt a bit like the Pacific Northwest giving me my orientation two years in.

So, we piled back into the car ready to head home with a notification that our beach pictures were in…

Yup, those were the cocaine pictures I mentioned earlier, but the timing was magnificent. I laughed hysterically and bought several just to remember the milestone year when I was reminded not to take myself too seriously. There were a few good pictures, though.

Not every birthday goes as planned, and isn’t that the point? Life throws you curve balls, and by the time you get back up, dazed and confused, you dust yourself off and prepare for another adventure. I did end up salvaging my birthday itself.

A morning at Pike Place to pick up dried flower bouquets from my favorite stall and delicious maple bourbon bacon doughnuts. Flowers from one of the best leaders I’ve worked with. Dinner with Eric, my neighbor, who turned 80 two days before. So many messages from friends, family, colleagues, clients, and even those helpful Walmart representatives offering to cancel that iPad I didn’t buy. This was a birthday to remember, and with more pictures than a girl could ask for.