My impending 35th birthday was coming up in a few weeks and for people in my profession, it marks a time when you're too old to be hired for some positions in the fire service. And whereas I wasn't feeling really old, but I finally understood what a friend of mine in the same career path felt eighteen months before, when he turned 35.
I decided to do something to mark the occasion. I was going through what some would call a midlife crisis and others a metamorphosis. I had the convertible sports car. A cute little black Mustang that got me dirty looks from all the moms in minivans as I dropped my son off to school in the morning. I lost a lot of weight and started going to the gym all the time. I just needed to loose 300 more pounds, meaning the estranged husband who really needed to get out of my life and let me move on.
I wanted to get a tattoo but I couldn't decide exactly what I wanted, nor could I find someone who could do it for me. A friend of mine was a piercer and he always joked that he'd love to pierce me because no one would think that I'd do something as wild as that. Despite my career choice, I'm a very maternal person. A Donna Reed for the older generation, Cindy Walsh for the 90210 generation.