Birthday blog

Today is my 45th birthday. I notice that very few of the "year of" books I read mention the author's birthday, although we can safely assume that they all had one during the course of their year. A great birthday celebration was discussed in Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver, who celebrated her 50th birthday during the year she writes about. You can see some of the recipes from the book at this website: http://www.animalvegetablemiracle.com/Recipes.html

Yesterday, of course, was my attainment day. Many people are unaware that they have an attainment day, and it allows them to spend two days celebrating their birthday. Your attainment day is the day you attain your new age, always the day before your birthday. This actually matters to a small group of people who were born on the first of the month. The federal government determines benefits for retirement starting the month you attain your new age. So if you happen to be one of the lucky "ones" your retirement benefits will start the month before your birthday. I know all this because my father worked for Social Security and it was something he dealt with all the time. Celebration of attainment days was an important tradtion in the Hayes house when I was growing up, although none of us had a birthday on the first of the month.