Me me me!

This post will be all about me (as opposed to the rest of this blog, right?), but even more so, cuz guess what?  It’s my birthday!

This year, I kept forgetting about my bday, for a change, between being busy with work and readying my memoir for publication.  Then it hit me this weekend: I am now just one year away from 40.

Waaaaaaaahhhhhhh!!!!!

Ahem.

Anyway, I’m trying to remind myself age is just a number, and I have a lot to be grateful for.  Wonderful friends and family, parents who are still healthy and active (knock wood), my own health (knock wood again), MB, the chance to live in a new city, and the opportunity to pursue my writing career in the way I’ve wanted for such a long time.

Life is good.

But part of me still wishes I could be 33 forever.

Why 33 you may ask?  Why not 25 or 17 or 29?  Because at 33, I started to feel like I was coming into my own.  I was living totally independently and getting to know myself again and living just for myself.  I was living the life – single and in the city – I had been fantasizing about for years.  Plus I was still skinny, had fewer wrinkles, and gravity had yet to take its toll.

Oh well.

Then again, I had a job I hated, and hadn’t met MB yet.  I was hardly published.  I was still angry about my divorce and took it out on my parents, who took out their hurt on me.

So I guess what I’m saying is there are good and bad things about every year, and actually this year, there is far more good than bad.

~ ~ ~

In other news, I finally have some really nice author photos.  Till now I’ve been using candids.  Not bad but also not very professional.  YP took this one of me which I love and I’ll still use –

Winter 2008

– but I also wanted something less wintery.

I looked into getting headshots last fall, but got lazy/chickened out.  I started looking into it again last week when MB suggested his friend, a talented photographer.

We met up in Union Square, and took pictures all around.  A nearby hotel, against building walls, etc.  He was very good at making me feel loose and comfortable.  “You’re stiff!” he’d say, and I’d jump up and down and shake out my arms.  And all those years of watching America’s Next Top Model apparently paid off: when he had me look off to the side, I made sure to focus my eyes far away – rather than at something close-up, which can seem cross-eyed – to project a dreamy look, and to actually think of something which would give my face some expression.

After not very long, we ended up with these five as my “best shots.”

I love all of them but the first two are my favorites – I’ve already updated my Facebook profile pic with the first one, and will use the second one for my book. I’m sure I’ll find a use for the others as well.

Yay for pictures that aren’t five plus years old!  And thanks again to MB’s very generous and talented friend!

Now to stuff my face with (anti-paleo) red velvet cupcakes.

7 comments

  1. Happy birthday! I think it’s wonderful that you can see the positives of the different times of your life–I only hope I can be in as good a place about myself when I’m 39. (Just turned 33 but figure the “comfortable with myself” is still a couple years off… but the gravity thing already started??)
    Funny, I liked the last two author photos best.

  2. I like Author 2 and 4 :) Good job on the faraway look, I need to watch some more ANTM and learn these tricks.

  3. thanks guys!

    i like the last two very much as well. they’re more fun and casual.

  4. I love the one where your face fills the frame the most. Beautiful! Happy birthday!

  5. Hi Angela,

    Happy birthday to you…and I just turned 40 and was all scared to do so, but now I just don’t care at all. I think it’s the anticipation of the milestone birthday, as opposed to anything else.

    I had to comment because this past summer, someone sent me a nasty, anonymous blog comment which read, in part, “Your blog is YOU YOU YOU YOU YOU.”

    And I laughed my tookus off, because yes, it’s my blog and it’s me me me and mine mine mine. What else should it be?

    I like the second photo and the one where your face takes up most of the frame. But they’re all good–hope you had a fun birthday and my best wishes for many more.

    Elizabeth

    • hey elizabeth! thanks for the birthday wishes and the reassurance about turning 40. i think you’re right – the anticipation is worse than the reality.

      that’s hilarious you got that comment! for real – what *else* is YOUR blog going to be about? besides, if that reader doesn’t like it, then he or she should, i dunno, NOT READ YOUR BLOG.