But I keep reminding myself that this situation is only temporary and I need to focus on the positives, and I know that one day I could be cooking in my own kitchen or folding washing in my own laundry or pulling weeds out of my own garden and I'll stop for a moment and long for my parents to have control again so I don't have to think about anything important, if only for a day.
For me, birthdays aren't about getting old,or about life passing me by. I prefer to use birthdays as a time to reflect on how I've used my years and to make plans for the next year so I have a lot to smile about on my next birthday. So I made a little list...
24 memories I'm thankful to have had since my last birthday (in no particular order):
♥ Pizza at the Cuckoo Cafe in Greytown
♥ The discovery of a beautiful old abandoned house in Carterton and exploring it with my sister
♥ The All Black's historic Rugby World Cup win
♥ The moment I pulled back the curtain on a chilly August night to discover it was snowing
♥ The day I started my very own Arts Page for the Wairarapa Times-Age newspaper
♥ My one and only trip to the beach - Riversdale Beach - during our miserable summer, where my sister and I sunbathed, I got sunburnt, we had a dip in the ocean, and we ate icecream - the perfect summer's day
♥ The night I listened to the amazingness of Vinyl Bison at the Cross Creek Blues Club
♥ The night Joshua and I saw Kitty, Daisy and Lewis in concert and got right up the front
♥ A beautiful dinner at Sweet Mother's Kitchen with friends
♥ A lazy Sunday afternoon spent watching Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe
♥ My first introduction to the screen goddess that was Marilyn Monroe while watching Some Like it Hot
♥ Reliving Titanic in 3D
♥ A slow dance to "Your Song" by Elton John with Joshua at my mum's 50th birthday party
♥ A scorching hot Christmas Day spent in the sun with family
♥ A meal of fish and chips at the park followed by the five of us (adults) taking turns on the flying fox
♥ Celebrating our five year anniversary with a beautiful dinner, amazing dessert, a funny movie and an amazing boyfriend
♥ The day Josh and I conquered Mt Holdsworth
♥ The hike through the Belmont Regional Park that nearly killed us... because we went the long way by accident
♥ A visit from my good friend Victor Kamesar from the U S of A
♥ Celebrating my little brother's 21st birthday
♥ The day the last of my stuff was packed into a trailer and I moved back home to Wellington after nearly two years away
♥ Anzac Day spent at Tinui
♥ New Years Eve spent in M-Tron with two other couples, getting quite drunk and slow dancing to old Beatles records
♥ Mine and Joshua's endless experiments with rice risotto
