Booze. Cuz No Great Birthday Started With Anyone Eating Salad. My friends Mandy and Lany gave me this card while we were at the bar on Saturday for an early birthday celebration. It made us all chuckle, including the bartenders serving our group of 15. A few weeks ago, I made reservations at our favorite spot, The Baldwin Bar, which not only serves up fantastic Sichuan Chinese food, but beautifully crafted cocktails (including a perfectly made Trader Vic's Mai Tai). We sat together at one long table and dined on bowls of Dan Dan noodles, platters of fried tilapia tossed with peppers and leeks, braised eggplant, and garlicky pea pod greens. Flaming cocktails were served. There was drinking and laughter and more drinking. 7 hours later, at 1:30 in the morning, Eric and I made our way home. Success.

So, today is my actual birthday. I'm now 31. Where did this last year go? Part of it was buried under snow. Some of it was spent in a hammock by the lake. We traveled to New Orleans, the Berkshires, and a number of times to the Cape. Overall, a good year. I'm proud of the work I've done and the growth of my business, but, more importantly, how I've found ways to balance my life a bit more... to take time for myself and for my relationships. It's something I still struggle with, but I think I'm getting better at it. We have a lot of exciting things planned over the next few months, so I feel like I'm going to be in celebration mode for a while. Point being: I really can't complain. Life is good.