Happy Birthday and Nonsense About Me

So here we are.  January.  Are these years passing faster, or is it just me?  I celebrated one of my very favorite days of the year on Wednesday:  MY BIRTHDAY.  I love my birthday.  I'm in love with my birthday.  No matter how crappy the weather or how tired I am from the December holiday extravaganza, you can't get me down on my day.  My day was awesome.  I spent the day with my family and then met a bunch of friends for roller skating and then karaoke!  Never in a million years would I have expected myself to turn into a "karaoke person", but here I am.

I was actually thinking about that the other day.  I'm SO MUCH different from the person I was in my younger years.  I was a shy, insecure, ultra quiet person.  It took me a lot of years to get here, and though the process was probably a lot longer and harder than it should've been, I made it.  I mean, obviously there are ways in which I hope to continue to grow, but I'm learning to own who I am... and that's a good feeling.

I know a lot of you have been reading this ol' blog for some years now, so I thought I'd share some things about myself that you may not know.  This will be more than the typical "I like sprinkles on my donuts" kind of thing.  Or, at least I hope it is.  Here are some things:

1.  I am an ULTRA sensitive person.  I used to be extremely ashamed of this.  I would refuse to cry in front of people, and I'd over compensate by being callous.  These days I cry a lot-- happy and sad.  I actually like this about myself now.  It has turned me into a very caring and thoughtful friend, which is one of the most important things to me.

2.  I had a very serious battle with depression last winter.  I haven't been ready to talk about this on the blog until now, even though I always knew I eventually would.  With the help of a few wonderful friends and a very caring doctor, I found my way to medication and began my swim back up to the surface.  I've tried to be very open about all of this with Hope.  My family never talked about mental illness when I was growing up, and I've spent a lot of years identifying myself as just "kind of a sad person".  Happy at times, of course, but the low days were so low.  And started becoming way too frequent.  I want to be as open and honest with Hope (and eventually Poesy) about my journey, so they know it's okay to ask for help if needed.

3.  I plan to never "act my age" as some people might suggest.  I mean, a least not in the ways I enjoy life.  Sure, I'm a grown up and I take care of my family and pay my bills and whatnot, but I hope to never be too adulty for quarter machines and arcades and dressing up and being generally silly.  I'll probably be the glittery-est elderly woman you've ever seen.

4.  There is no quality I value more in a person than empathy.  I hope to instill this in my daughters and rub it off on whoever I'm around.  Truly caring about another person's struggles is everything.  Everything.

5.  This year my biggest goal is to do a Skunkboy Creatures ecourse or pattern book.  I'm finally ready to share some of the animal patterns I've developed with people who are interested in sewing them!  I'm super pumped about it!

6.  Okay, so this list wouldn't be complete without the donut distinction: I'm a toasted coconut instead of sprinkles kind of gal.

Happiest, happiest Friday to you all!  Poesy's birthday party is tomorrow, so I'm headed out to finish buying supplies.  Girl wants a karaoke party!!  It's going to be awesome.  xo.