Happy Birthday to Me

I set about engineering the perfect birthday this year.

I'm the first one to admit that I'm spoiled, as far as birthdays go. The 29th never falls on Thanksgiving, thanks to tricks of leap years and dates, but it generally falls very near that day -- sometimes the day after, sometimes during the weekend following. More often than not, I have the day off for my birthday. My family traditionally celebrates my birthday in Corpus Christi, either the Friday or Saturday following Thanksgiving, so I'm lucky enough to have the whole family in attendance. It's a great deal, if you can get it.

In recent years, my birthdays haven't all been ideal. Last year was pretty uneventful -- a nice day overall, but year before last, when the 29th fell the day after Thanksgiving, the toilets backed up in my mom's house, and we had to call a plumber. Great times, oh yes. The year before that, I finished training and demoed on my birthday. It went well enough, and they didn't fire me or anything, but it was stressful until it was over with.

This year, my birthday fell on a work day once again -- a Monday at that. The thought of spending my birthday at work just seemed so very... distasteful, so I asked for the day off.

I went for a hike at McKinney Falls State Park, which is where I took my best picture ever, a snowy egret standing in a shallow pool at the top of the falls, back in September. After all the rains we've had in central Texas recently, there's no way I could've gotten to the place I took that picture. The falls which were a comparative trickle in September rushed today. It was beautiful and violent, and I took lots of pictures, naturally. I spent most of the time there bird watching. I found a little picnic table to sit at and set up my tripod, and the birds just started showing up. It was incredible. My roster for the day includes: great blue herons, snowy egrets, double-crested cormorants, eastern bluebirds, yellow-throated vireos, a cardinal, titmice, chickadees, and a red-bellied woodpecker. Artless bird pictures are, naturally, forthcoming.

A front blew through as I was standing creekside, trying to photograph some egrets and cormorants perched at the top of a tree. The birds were sharing the tree with turkey vultures, but when the chilly wind blew through, all the birds took off in unison. It was an awesome sight.

As I was preparing to leave, I passed by the upper falls again and noticed an artist painting them. I took a few pictures of the artist and the falls. It was a beautiful, picturesque scene, and I felt lucky to have captured it.

I'm 28 years old today.