It seems I skipped a birthday entry. Shawn is on vacation this week, per usual. It's wonderful that he takes my birthday off, so that I get my favorite present every year -- time with him. Everything else is just bonus.

This year for the day itself we went to St. Petersburg for the Saturday Morning Market I love so. I got to hear Rebekah Pulley play and buy yummies, and walk around, and get bought some gorgeous roses. We were going to hit the Reading Festival, too, but one look and I knew it was too crowded for my mood, so we went to Haslam's instead, and ended up getting Shawn a couple books.

There's a couple more things we have planned for this week, but it's been so long since he's had a vacation and we're both just in sleepy/homebody mode. Which is kinda strange as we've been very go-go-go all month (or so my gas bill tells me). I'm happy putting anything off for the next vacation that will have to be squeezed in before February. That and maybe by then I'll have a camera that is not dependent on an electrical outlet (I don't recall if I mentioned my camera battery died, hence the relative lack of pictures since July) so I'll be able to bring the memories of those outings home with me.

As for where I am on a personal level, I find that it's undeniable that I'm in the middle of a classic (or is it cliché?) Saturn Return, and it's making me even quieter than usual. There's a lot going on inside, but not at a stage worth pondering out loud (not that I necessarily would anyway). I always thought I'd be able to skip this stage, misunderstanding it as finding oneself, which I'd already gone through the process of in my early twenties. But I'm realizing that this, for me at least, is not about finding so much as refining and directing. I know myself, but what do I want to do with that? Where do I want to go? What do I want to do with what this life has given me to work with?

But despite that internal pondering, and despite the external upheaval that is coming, things are mostly calm. I knit, and I breathe, and I live, and I love, and life goes on. Just the way things should be.