thirty-eight

content/post/2023/08/thirty-eight.md

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+---
+title: Thirty-Eight
+date: 2023-08-26T12:56:00+02:00
+categories:
+    - braindump
+tags:
+    - birthday
+---
+
+I turned thirty-eight today. That's the sum of the squares of the first three primes (thank you for that useless fact, Wikipedia). That's also eight more than thirty, and two less than a psychological crisis followed by a Harley-Davidson, possibly followed by either a sale or a divorce. A friend turned forty this year and needed a forthnight off work to cope with it. My sore back and worrying head says that won't do it for me. 
+
+Did you know that cats have 38 chromosomes in their genome? Okay I'll close that tab now. [On my previous birthday](/post/2022/08/thirty-seven), I bought myself a board game and wrote:
+
+> If there's one thing I wish for my thirty-eight birthday, it's having played _Grand Austria Hotel_ at least 20 times. Nineteen more to go!
+
+Guess how many times I played that game? Exactly four times. Perhaps now it's time to start thinking about introducing a regular game night, otherwise those projected "20 times" will never become a reality. 
+
+As you get older, traditional wrapped gifts seem to gradually make way for financial transfers, sometimes a few days before your "special" day. And I get it: like I wrote before, we have too many stuff---what kind of original thing _can_ you still gift, then? Still, a part of me mourns this loss. I think that's why birthdays were much more fun when I was a kid: unwrapping that exciting new LEGO set and getting to play with it all day, only to take a break for dinner that you got to choose. Now I have to cook (or order) it myself. 
+
+My grandfather kept on buying LEGO sets for himself and played with it now and then when I visited. Perhaps even more when I wasn't there. Perhaps he even wrapped them just for the heck of it. I should learn from that. I think I'm getting too serious. For us, the year 2023 has been too serious. When I asked _what's your take on life?_ on Mastodon, Tijn of the DOS Game Club answered simply with "try to have fun".
+
+Perhaps I should remember this day to be a bit more playful, and not limit that state of mind just to playing games. 

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