So, my birthday has come. I am twenty-seven years old. I don’t fear age, but I regret not being the “baby” in the office anymore. I am slowly losing the advantage of my youth and the early start I had in the work force. Nobody gasps, when I reveal how young I am. What’s more, I’ve begun taking my youth for granted.

A little while ago, I thought about the path of my career, and I wondered why I wasn’t as motivated to get to the top as quickly as I could, like I was when I started. I think my year of unemployment drained me of my professional confidence. Well, I figured I wouldn’t let that unfortunate year keep me down. I began establishing a strategy for work and life to accomplish new, higher goals than I’ve ever had before. I stopped being content with my normal output and started taking on more and more responsibilities and working harder and more efficiently to accomplish tasks previously beyond me.

With God’s help (the majority of the effort was His), I made waves in my workplace and now find myself shifting into another Marketing position. I will finally be over the salary hump created by my year of unemployment, and will now be making more money than I ever have before. What’s more is that, in my private life, I have made changes that will allow me to have less expenses than I’ve ever had—since moving out of my parents’ house. God has placed me in a position, right now, where I can not only get out of debt, but also start building a nest egg for when I eventually decide to buy another home or start a family.

It’s really the best birthday gift I could have received—a new job, a new salary, a new home, and a renewed sense of confidence.

But that’s not all that happened on my birthday. I had a weeklong celebration in honor of my rather insignificant date of birth. It started on Thursday, when I bought myself my first birthday present—a Nikon D100 digital SLR camera. Don’t ask. It’s for my new website, and it’s tax-deductible.

On Friday night, Jeff, Roberta, Adam, Deanne and I met at Bungalow Billiards after work, and we ate and played pool. The place was packed with “happy hour” yuppy, frat-like folks, so we left after two games. We went bowling in Falls Church and met up with Jay Jay, Joel, Pete and Dan. For the most part, we were all on fire the whole night—I scored between 120-135 all three games—and we all bet a dollar on the last game (which Dan won with a 145). It turned into Cosmic bowling after 11 PM, which was a nice, new addition to the bowling alley.

Saturday morning, I woke up bright and early to purchase Dixie Chicks concert tickets at 10 AM, when they went on sale. This was my second birthday gift to myself. I got two great seats to both of their back-to-back shows at the MCI Center on June 25 & 26. I got through right at 10 for the first ones, then soon after for the other two. (Thank God for cable Internet!) Now I just need two Dixie Chicks fans to go with me.

On Saturday night, Roberta and I went to the Lazy Susan Dinner Theatre in Woodbridge to have a huge buffet dinner and watch a theatrical performance of Agatha Christie’s “Ten Little Indians.” We had the best seats in the house—a small, round table-for-two at center stage. I love live theater, and this was no exception. The actors were great, and so was the story (except for the ending, which I thought was lame…but that’s Agatha Christie’s fault). We didn’t get out of there until after midnight.

I didn’t do much on Sunday and Monday, except hang out with my parents and help them empty their townhouse, which is being sold tomorrow.

Today (Tuesday) at work, my office mates took me out to lunch. I had originally said I wanted to go to Chuck E. Cheese, but relented and allowed us to go to Red Lobster. I had the Ultimate Fondu, and now I feel like taking a nap.

My family is going to have a group dinner at Shanghai Pearl on Thursday after work to celebrate both mine and my sister’s birthdays. Might be the last family dinner in a long, long time.

Thank you to everyone who hung out or otherwise wished me a happy birthday. And thank God for letting me live this long.