Another tenth anniversary (one of the last)

It's one of those aging indicators, the "tenth anniversary". The decade mile(stone) marker. As soon as they start hitting, you start feeling... less young. More well-traveled (through time). The more of them that pass, the more non-young you feel. Well, I've had some of these in recent years, but they're almost through. Soon, there will be fifteen-year anniversaries. A sure sign that my grasp of youth is, well, empty-handed.

They started for me in 2001, of course. My ten-year high school reunion. Also the ten-year anniversary of my move to Oklahoma.

There have been several "job related" tenth anniversaries of late. Ten years of HTML, the web, e-commerce, etc. The tenth anniversary of the first commercial firewall.

2005 was the tenth anniversary of my marriage. The tenth anniversary of my "first real job out of college".

2006 will see a few decade milestones as well. Soon, for example, will be the tenth anniversary of my college graduation. And today is a milestone as well. Today is the tenth anniversary of the birth of my first child.

Yep, Darby is ten years old today. Can you believe it? Double digits. She's so excited. "Only three more years," she says, until teenagedom. Bleh, I say, to that. Though I do say "Happy Birthday!" gleefully to my first child, thinking not of which it is.



Darby was actually slightly bummed this morning, when I didn't immediately acknowledge her birthday. But then I told her, hey now, give me a break. Ten years ago you were still in your momma's belly. You weren't born until 2:53pm, so happy almost birthday. She thought that was pretty funny and cheered right up.

When I picked her up from school, she was glowing, with the flowers and balloon in hand that her mother had sent to the school. I gave her a big, fat, birthday hug, and took her to the restaurant of her choice for dinner and ice cream. It was officially a celebration. There goes another ten years. Hoo-rah. There will be more reminders this weekend, when we have her actual party.




In other Darby news, she lost what I believe to be her last baby tooth today. How symbolic, huh? Of course, she RIPped it out, she says, but it had been loose for quite awhile and was dangling by a thread of gum today, according to her.