And so it begins ...

Last year's birthday was OK, but ended up being kind of mheh.

This year, Cinco de Mayo and my birthday hit the same weekend, so I've decided to have an admittedly selfish take, and treat myself to 4 days of general me-ness.

And it started out well today, before my 4-day mini holiday has even officially begun.

My boss got me a massage, which I don't do, but ended up a really a good way to start the day. Plus, I was really productive today, and got a nice card from my past and current teams, before my current team took me out to an early happy hour ("early" at BigHugeCorp being after 5 p.m.). One Shiner Bock, two Dos XX, one Guinness, an order of bacon jalapeno poppers, and 64-plus ounces of water later (and a great, fascinating conversation about the intricacies of the Lebanese Freedom Fighters told from a first-hand experience), it was time to head home.

I treated myself to a 3-plus mile run, at that white witching hour of early dusk in the Central Texas early summer where the fireflies kept me company as I made aggressive work of my circuit (thanks in part to Living Color and Method Man), with the tail end of my run superceded by one of those instant, impressive, massive thunder and lightning storms unique to this part of the world.

I learned a while ago that entitlement attitudes are pretty stupid, so I realize nothing else may go my way for the rest of the weekend.

And if today is all I get, I'm really OK with that. Great way to start the weekend ...