50/50 on 2020 and 50 Things!

(Note: I wrote this post a few months ago (in May, my actual birthday month), but held off posting until it felt a little more right to do so.)

Currently, I’m 50% amazed and grateful to be turning 50 and 50% shocked and in disbelief about turning 50!

And 50/50 on how 2020 is going thus far? Nah, more like 90/10. I think the vast majority of us can agree, that at least 90% of the year so far has been a sh!tshow of epic proportions and you certainly don’t need it to be explained why. (Thank goodness we had Bill’s b-day trip in February to CA or it’d definitely be more like 95/5 right now!)

Earlier this month, on Cinco de Mayo, I celebrated my 50th birthday. (No, I can’t believe it either!) In quarantine like so many others have this year. I did NOT toast w/ a Corona this year just in case you were wondering.

Because I was born at the beginning of a decade, it has always very easy for my math-challenged brain to immediately know how old I’d be in 1990, 2010, etc. and on many birthdays, I’d think about what my 50th would be like in 2020. 2020! Of course, for most of those years, 2020 seemed extremely far away and it was fun to think about what 2020 would look like around me.

Would we have flying cars as the Jetson’s clearly promised? (Sadly, no.) Certainly we would have a woman president at that point, right? (Sigh.) Would I have gray hair like my Dad who started going gray in his 30’s? (Thanks to quarantine and no hair salon visits, I can say with certainty, that I do.) Maybe, I would be pulling up my high waisted, red polyester pants, kicking, stretching annnnd kicking while yelling “I’m 50! Fifty years old!” like Sally O’Malley (aka Molly Shannon) on SNL? (Haven’t yet, but give me time.)

In honor of the big 5-0h-my-god-I’m-50 and inspired by my blogger and designer friend, Sarah of Room For Tuesday, I thought it might be fun to share 50(!) things that you might not know about me. (Many of these, you likely already do though. It was hard coming up with 50! I wish I’d have done this at 30 like Sarah! LOL)

1. My parents were both born and raised in South Dakota and I still have lots of family back there. Until I was in my late teens, we’d drive back almost every Summer to see cousins, aunts and uncles and visit their farms. To this day, I sometimes fantasize about running away and living in the country. B, who spent many of his childhood years on a farm in Missouri (although he pronounces it “misery”), usually pulls me back into reality.
2. I have one younger brother and our parents died relatively young – Dad was 54 and Mom was 62, so it’s just been the two of us now for quite a while. I’m so thankful I didn’t get that childhood wish that I was an only child when he was driving me crazy when we were kids! I don’t know what I’d do without him now and his amazing, beautiful family.
3. I’ve never had braces and up until recently, had “beautiful teeth” according to my dentists. I see Invisalign in my future though now thanks to “overcrowding” because our lower jaws shrink as we age. Who knew? I have nightmares about them all falling out though and have for years, so I try and take care of them really well. Next time you see me, please humor me and tell me what beautiful teeth I have, won’t you?
4. I played clarinet in grade school, but I really wanted to play the violin. Less breath work! I’m all for efficiency and the path of least resistance. Plus, the strings just sound so much more beautiful to my ears.
5. My favorite holiday is Halloween. I love dressing up and scaring the beejezus out of people, especially kids, although not to the point of tears. I’m not a monster for goodness sake. At least I’m not the other 364 days of the year. (I hope.)
6. Alongside my husband, we shot over 400+ weddings in our fourteen years as wedding photographers. I’ve been excited to move forward, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t miss it. I really only miss the people and the actual wedding though, not the wedding day stress, the heavy equipment, nor working on the weekends (and pretty much every weekday, too).
7. Thanks to said heavy equipment and my refusal at the time (apparently) to hold my gear “correctly”, I now have arthritis in my thumbs. At 50?! Ugh. Young wedding photographers, take note!
8. My favorite thing to do is make B laugh. Thankfully he finds my sick, silly and often sarcastic humor, funny on the regular.
9. I have a note on my phone listing my celebrity sightings over the years. I’m up to 31 with some highlights being Tom Cavenaugh (during his Ed days) because he looked right at me and smiled that huge Ed smile, Jon Stewart hanging out next to us at Keswick in Charlottesville (during his Daily Show days) and shaking Obama’s hand, back when he was in the White House and who I’d absolutely argue is a celebrity.
10. I’m what Marie Forleo would call a “multi-passionate entrepreneur”. I have a plethora of bad-A$$ business ideas and want to do them all (hence the Collector of Domains). I’m finally moving towards starting with one, though! (See #11.)
11. Good Karma Goods combines my love of gift giving and giving back. Coming soon! I swear. Hopefully. ;-D
12. But first, I just turned my cookie decorating passion into a small side business. Come follow my adventures and cookie love at EatLoveCookies on Insta!
13. I used to be the snooze queen, but in 2018 I decided after watching a cute, but informative little animation explanation of why snoozing is bad for you and actually makes you more tired, to stop cold turkey. (I thought I would always be a snoozer, but that ended up being all it took.) The next day I woke up when my alarm went off (or even better, no alarm and wake up naturally) and have been doing so ever since.
14. I thought I was a sweet over savory person and then I tried to give up meat for a month. LONGEST and hungriest month of my life. Give me allllll the bacon and no one gets hurt.
15. I’m also a multi-passionate hobbier (although I’m pretty sure that’s not actually a word) – calligraphy, knitting, drawing, but I’m not what I’d call adept at most of them. I’m well on my way to getting to 10k hours though in advanced baking and intermediate decorating. (See #12)
16. While I like some sour beers, I’m much more of a wine or cocktail gal. My favorite wine currently is a french rosé and current fave cocktail is an Aviation, but ask me again tomorrow.
17. I’m sure people wonder why, but for many reasons, having children just wasn’t in the cards for us. Thankfully we really like each other and don’t feel like our life is lacking thanks to our awesome nephews and wonderful niece. (Edited 7/22/20 – BRCA may actually may have contributed to our infertility. Studies are ongoing and often conflicting on different details, but my specialist at the time said in tests that my ovaries were acting “older than they should be”. This was back in 2007-2009 and no one at that time, to my knowledge, was suggesting a possible link. We also didn’t pursue further assistance knowing that I had a 50/50 chance of passing the gene along to a biological child. If you have a BRCA mutation though and are of child bearing age, you may want to talk to your doctor about fertility preservation like freezing eggs, as early as possible.)
18. Like many people I’m sure and especially now after having been restricted from doing so, our travel list is a mile long. Next up currently is Iceland, Portugal, Germany, British Columbia and Italy, though not necessarily in that order. Hopefully next year we’ll find ourselves in one of those places for our 20th wedding anniversary!
19. Despite living in Colorado for seven years now, I still don’t like skiing (more of a hot chocolate by the fire girl), but I do love cycling and want to do the Pedal the Plains bike tour in Fall 2021.
20. I wouldn’t call myself an interior designer, because I lack the formal training, but I do love interior decorating and using the ancient, time-tested principles of Feng Shui to achieve harmony and great chi (energy) in our spaces.
21. If I could live anywhere….I can’t pick! I love the beach AND the mountains, but the beach has a slight advantage just because I’ve been exposed to it more throughout my life, where before living in CO, mountains weren’t really my thing. Now a mountain cabin w/ a roaring fire, a good puzzle, a snowstorm outside and plenty of wine inside can definitely hold its own against a cute, light & bright cottage with a swimming pool on the Gulf of Mexico or the Pacific. But, uh, can I have both, please?
22. If we ever ended up moving out of the States, Canada (close!) and New Zealand (very far) would be tops on the list.
23. My middle name is Katherine and my mom was Katherine Anne, which was my Dad’s suggestion when they decided to name me Anne (with an E, please!), instead of their other choice, Sarah. (So funny a real Sarah ended up inspiring this list!)
24. I married my HS sweetheart nine years after we started dating, but alas, it seems we were still apparently too young and ultimately wanted different paths in life. It wasn’t an easy divorce for many reasons (no conscious uncoupling for us sadly), but we remain in each other’s lives as distant friends now, I guess you could say.
25. Until we moved to CO, I only lived on the East Coast save for a few months my first husband and I lived in Tucson when we were still dating. We were 20 and the plan was to go to Arizona University, but my Dad got sick and we ended up moving back to VA. Never regretted it, but I do feel much more at home out West.
26. Ask B, but it is quite literally almost impossible to surprise me, even though I genuinely want to be. Although the awesome movie down below proves that sometimes he does get me!
27. In HS, I wanted to work for a magazine in NYC as an art & layout editor, but alas, see #22. Instead of moving to the big city in college (which admittedly I would have likely hated), I originally majored in Historic Preservation because I thought being an archeologist would be cool. The program was more academic and theoretical though then hands on, so I switched to Communications, transferred schools and graduated with a BS from George Mason University in VA.
28. My focus on communications was partly inspired by my Dad who had been a sports and news broadcaster in South Dakota early in my parents marriage, before they moved to VA where he would be working for a congressman from Wisconsin on The Hill in DC. His boss kept getting re-elected so he continued to have a job for 20+ years!
29. Probably surprising no one, I have a terrible memory and make lists for everything. And yes, I’m one of those people who write stuff down they’ve already done just so I can cross it off. #noshame
30. I’ve loved photography since my Dad handed me his Nikon and in contrary to my photojournalistic nature that I embraced as I got older, remember sprinkling water on my Mom’s roses before photographing them because I wanted them “dewey”. (Don’t tell B!)
31. I grew up with a pool in my backyard (lucky kid, I know) and now I’m a bit of a pool snob. Public pools = generally not enough chlorine in the world.
32. From my very first Christmas on, we’d take a family photo in front of our fireplace every year. My Mom would hang them in order on a wall in our living room, where they always garnered lots of fandom from our family friends. While I’m pretty sure I usually disliked sitting for them, am so grateful now to have them. So much more fun to see how we all changed and grew year after year instead of just going by our individual school photos.
33. B and I were married in New Orleans the weekend after 9/11 on what would have been my parents 39th wedding anniversary and six days after my Mom passed away from ovarian cancer. Needless to say, incredibly bittersweet time, but has inspired a photo project that I’m super excited about. More on that soon!
34. I have 0 tattoo’s. Yes, apparently, I am that boring. Or that classy. LOL!
35. If in the past 15+ years, you’ve tried to call me, I’m sorry, but I was out. Yes. Every time. Much better with Facetime and text. Perhaps I’m really a millennial at heart?
36. My favorite tv show ending ever has to be 6FT Under finale. (Yes, yes, I know, it’s not TV, it’s HBO.) And apparently, I’m not the only one.
37. One of my ultimate dreams is to be published in the NY Times Modern Love column. Just need to write it!
38. From birth to age 20, I lived in the same house, but I’ve lived in five places in the past seven years.
39. If you read this blog, you likely already know that I tested positive for a BRCA2 gene mutation, which significantly increased my chances of getting breast or ovarian cancer in my lifetime. I was one of the earlier test takers though (long before the Angelina Jolie’s and the Christina Applegates made it more known, back when the test cost $3K unless insurance covered it. They didn’t initially, because my family history was too small, but my oncologist at the time wrote them a letter and changed their mind! My Mom was the only female and back then they were really only looking at women in the family who developed cancer, but it turned out that she inherited the gene from her Dad, who passed away from pancreatic or prostate cancer in his early 70’s. (By the time he was diagnosed, it had spread to his spine so they were unsure of where it started exactly and I was only 9 at the time. See #29-poor memory.)
40. Hate feet. Love hands.
41. I love painting. Walls that is. (Canvases too, but I’m definitely better at walls.) Love the immediate change trying out new colors can bring to a space.
42. I’m as pale as many a beautiful redhead, but they’re more porcelain, where as I’m more fluorescent. Can anyone relate?
43. Love the smell of coffee, but that’s it. Tea for me, please.
44. I have somewhat eclectic music tastes, although I’m sure some would disagree. I love west coast jazz (especially live), “anthem rock”, classical, alternative, country – just depends on my mood. Not really a classic rock fan, though.
45. I’m not a great sleeper, but a great walker – both according to my Fitbit.
46. Baking is my love language. (See #12.)
47. I joke that I should have a cleaning company, because I have what I’m sure many would say are highly insane standards, but I learned from my Mom who kept an incredibly clean house. Clutter however was her one and only vice keeping our home looking spotless.
48. I try to be pretty organized because I hate clutter. See #47
49. Adele shares my birthday(!), as do several of our dear friends (who can be seen briefly in the video below). Love you guys!
50. At 50, I’m only four years younger than my Dad was when he passed away from Type 1 Diabetes complications. That. Is. Crazy. To. Me.

Well, needless to say, never did I think that 2020 would actually hold a global pandemic with over 120,000 American’s alone, dying from Covid-19. (Now 135k, in mid-July.) Pretty sure you didn’t either. So I really wasn’t sure what my birthday would look like once it became clear that I would very likely be celebrating it at “home” with B. But that honestly didn’t sound that bad. Would I have preferred to go out to a lovely restaurant, sure, but obviously things could have been much worse than not being able to go out to eat.

(Side note: Nor did I ever think high school seniors in 2020 would not get to have a prom or a graduation ceremony. I hope these newly minted eighteen year old take what they’ve experienced, especially this year, and V-O-T-E.)

As it turns out, I had a wonderful day indeed. We got to do our condo walkthrough (finally!) and we had a lovely steak dinner delivered hot to our Airbnb’s door. AND B surprised me with a movie made up of dear friends and family, both near and far, sending video b-day wishes. Blew. Me. Away. (Below you can see a quick 1 sec mini-movie of it.) Thank you to everyone who was able to participate. It truly meant the world to me to see so many of your smiling faces. It may not have looked how I thought it would, but it turned out pretty damn great anyway.

I generally do not embrace change. In fact I actively try and avoid it at times, but then I think about what I’ve been through these past couple of years, how I’m not the same person, how I’ve come out the other side of it – stronger, more self assured, more compassionate…I don’t think any of us will come out the other side of this, the same. At least I hope not. Too much has happened…too many lives have been lost.

We may not always know what’s coming (ie. we never really know), but I remain hopeful for the next 50 years. And who knows, we may even have those flying cars in my lifetime (just don’t let Musk be a part of it, please) AND just maybe it’ll be our future madam president who will do it for us.

While hindsight is only 20/20, one thing I do know for sure? I won’t be subjecting you to another one of these are my 60th! You’re welcome.

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