Two funny things happened the week of my birthday. Not funny like ha ha, but funny in ironic timing.

My birthday was the lucky Friday, December 13.

The Sunday before that I looked in the mirror and noticed that I had a plethora of gray in my hair. I am not sure how I’ve missed this change prior to that date. But I’m OK with it. In fact, I’ve been waiting for it. Now I can have fun playing with even more colors 🙂

Then things got even more interesting. I spent the day on Tuesday hanging out with my sister-in-law who was visiting. While talking, I sat in our chair of awesomeness — the name we have given our massage chair.

Around 5 AM on Wednesday morning, searing pain woke me up. My back was thrown out. And here I thought I was pathetic putting my back out tying my shoes a couple years ago. Ha ha. Little did I know, but I could do even better and put it out while sleeping.

I kind of blame my time in the chair. My theory is that the back tilt teased my disc to try to slide out of position again. Maybe that chair is not so awesome for me. The bittersweet news was that the slopes were closed due to rainy conditions. So at least I didn’t lose time there.

Hobbling through the next few days, I even managed to work a bit, albeit slower than usual. I was trying to avoid medication during the days, and still my brain felt like I was on pain killers. Must’ve been endorphins.

This made me very thankful for my good health in general. Another item to be thankful for — lovely, snowy views to enjoy out the window as I lay flat to lessen the pain.

By Friday I was doing a bit better–thanks to the stretches I learned from physical therapist last time and some medication left over from my experience two years ago. The muscle relaxers really helped a lot.

This was the first birthday that I have worked on in a few years. I knew I could’ve taken the day off with our company’s open vacation policy. However, it feels I have taken a lot of days off this year and a break didn’t seem necessary this day.

I’m glad I worked. It was a reminder to me of what a gift my job is in itself— from my coworkers to the people I meet in support chats.

As the day progressed, phone calls, emails and texts came in from loved ones around the globe. All six of my children were in contact, which is always a big treat for me.

Chris had been asking me for weeks what I would like to do for my birthday. In complete honesty, all that did was remind me of how amazing my life is. The special things I could think of to do were things I do on a regular basis — go for walks, snowboard, play games, watch movies, eat great food, etc. How very blessed I am.

Still, both Mom Pollock and Chris found ways to spoil me. Chris made an amazing dinner, and Mom got me an ice cream cake. We finished the day by watching our digital copy of the Broadway musical, Cats together.

That was a few days ago, and now I’m back in Massachusetts, sitting at the base of the slope I love so much. It’s my day off. My back is doing much better, and it’s time to get back in the snowboarding game by taking a few easy runs.

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As I geared up, I checked slope conditions and found out they are blowing snow on the runs I planned to take. My back is still tender enough that I didn’t want to do the more intense runs.

Instead, Chris is taking some runs while I’m sitting by the fire watching people have fun on the slopes as I enjoy another passion – writing. And that’s pretty awesome, too. I’m dictating into my phone app as I write, and feel a little silly at times, but I figure people will just think I’m on the phone with someone. Nobody is in my immediate vicinity, so I’m not being rude.

So this is it. A birthday where grey hair and back pain remind me of years well-lived. A year where I’m reminded of how blessed I am to work at the job I have, and a birthday filled with lots of love emanating from people met over various stages of this incredible journey we call life. Definitely my birthday to remember.