An excellent event

We got Margaret and Teddy's class pictures back today. As one would expect, Margaret looks great in all of her pictures. She has that smile with fantastic eyes that she inherited from Grandma Mary and her great-grandmother through her Papa. Her eyes scrunch up and just twinkle when she smiles. In contrast, Teddy is cute in some of his pictures, but also often looks, well, a bit dull. His whole look isn't helped by the big welt on his head that he got from tumbling down the stairs just before picture day. All of the teachers at school laughed and laughed when they saw his solemn pictures with the big bump on his forehead.

Of course, I have to be careful here with my direct comparison of Margaret to Teddy. Don't want to give either kid a complex, much less initiate a competition between them. Regardless, the non-linear pricing of the class pics (each complete set that we buy yields a much lower per set price so that we always end up buying all of them) implies that we'll have tons of extra photos to send around. While I may not be able to scan and post them on the blog, certain dedicated readers can rest assured that they'll get copies of pictures of Margaret looking cute and Teddy looking like, as they call him at school, a little oompa loompa.

However, that's not the excellent event.

Today happens to be my birthday. I am now officially 37. As my 90-year-old grandmother said in her birthday card, "How does it feel to be 37? Not so bad, is it?"

Actually, that's not the excellent event either.

I also officially moved to a new position at work today. The move has been in the works for some time, but it officially took effect today, which is nice because I'll be doing stuff that's much more in line with the issues that really interest me.

That is also not the excellent event.

Instead, the excellent event involved an amalgamation of the previous two events. While being introduced to my new co-workers, one of them, an early 20's research assistant, said, "Oh, are you a new intern?" The person with me and I looked at each other and said, "Umm, no." "But you look so young," the RA sheepishly responded. "Actually," I said, "Today is my birthday, and I'm 37. But let me tell you, being mistaken for an intern is probably the best birthday present I could get at this point."