{"id":13553,"date":"2023-01-04T06:30:04","date_gmt":"2023-01-04T14:30:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nerdseyeview.com\/blog\/?p=13553"},"modified":"2023-01-04T06:32:35","modified_gmt":"2023-01-04T14:32:35","slug":"59-how-can-that-be","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nerdseyeview.com\/blog\/2023\/01\/04\/59-how-can-that-be\/","title":{"rendered":"59? How can that be?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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There is a lot of noise from Interstate 5, just over the fence. The check-in clerk was kind enough to find me a room facing the pool, but I still hear the hum and whine of the big trucks as they head north past this truck stop plaza. Harley the Dog woke up early — even for me — to go out. I pulled on my coat over my pajamas and we walked around the L-shaped hotel complex, Harley sticking his nose in the grass as though it would reveal great secrets, me squinting in the brightness of the parking lot floodlights. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When we got back to the room, a Motel 6 with a shower that is not hot enough, I realized that it is my birthday today. And I am 59, the last year of my 50s, how is this possible!?!? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I will make the last leg of my drive to a bungalow in Twentynine Palms, California, where I will spend the entire month of January and the first week of February. It is my right, as a Jewish lady of a certain age, to embrace the tradition of snowbirding. January is bleak in the Pacific Northwest and I suffer from seasonal depression (okay, to be fair, I suffer from annual depression at times). When I realized I could just get out for a bit, it felt like I’d discovered flight. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Things fell into place bit by bit to make this trip possible. I can work anywhere, I was able to bring Harley, I found a friend who wanted to be in Seattle while I was gone, I know someone with a rental property…I will spend my birthday dinner in my short-term desert home, orienting myself to the new space and the new year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I like to joke that I will start having birthdays again when we get our pre-pandemic lives back. This parks me at an eternal 56 which, face it, we’re not going back. For the first time in a while, it feels like forward is a real option. It’s a low bar, but if you’ve been here, you know that “unstuck” is a solid goal. Maybe it’s weird to wake up at a cheap truckstop hotel on your birthday, but all around me things are in motion. When the light comes up, I will be too. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Happy birthday to me. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s my birthday and I’m at a truck stop. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":74,"featured_media":13557,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13553","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-seattle","masonry-post","generate-columns","tablet-grid-50","mobile-grid-100","grid-parent","grid-50"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nerdseyeview.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13553","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nerdseyeview.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nerdseyeview.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nerdseyeview.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/74"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nerdseyeview.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13553"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.nerdseyeview.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13553\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13559,"href":"https:\/\/www.nerdseyeview.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13553\/revisions\/13559"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nerdseyeview.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13557"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nerdseyeview.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nerdseyeview.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nerdseyeview.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}