The Quarter Century Mark

I am old.

Early Twenties? Long Gone.

Late Early-Twenties? Years ago.

Early Mid-twenties? Buh-bye

Welcome, Arun, to the wonderful world of old people. The Quarter-Century club.

I vividly remember what a big deal my sister thought it was when I hit "double digits" - the big 1-0. Then, I remember the feeling of finally turning an actual teenager! I used to think, "gee, in the year 2000, I'm gonna be 16!" That seemed so old. I never contemplated what I'd be in the year 2008.

So 24 came and went. Knowing me, you're probably all guessing that I did something wild and crazy for my birthday! A new adventure! Shenanigans and chaos!

You'd be wrong.

I never like making a big deal out of my birthday. As much as you all know I like attention, I like to EARN it by being "Smooth Arun." Not because I happened to be born on a certain day. So what did I do on my birthday?

Well, I went to work, did a grueling workout (wasn't going to let the birthday excuse let me out of it!), and came home. But...I had a treat in store later. I had no time to really eat after working out, so for my "birthday dinner" I ate tofu dipped in soy sauce, and a mango. My friends offered to take me out, but I deferred to the weekend since I had already planned...

A MASSAGE! Sweet God Almighty, this is one of the top five inventions EVER! I decided on a "deep tissue" massage since I figured there's on awful lot of steel-like muscle the therapist would have to work through :) A deep tissue massage is an interesting feeling though. Half the time, I'm so relaxed I want to fall asleep. The other half I'm grimacing in pain, trying not to scream!

It's a "good" pain though. Kind of like the great burn you get when you eat wasabi. All the while I'm thinking "ok...breathe...she's getting the toxins out of your muscles...breathe!..BREATHE!"

When she had me face up, my concentration doubled. As devilishly handsome as I may be, the facial contortions I was making while face down, were not exactly "GQ" cover material.

Afterwards though, I felt amazing. I went to the coffee shop across the street, all set to continue reading my current book, "Anna Karenina," but I met a girl in line who instead convinced me (she didn't have to try very hard) to share a piece of chocolate chip cheesecake with her.

Cheesecake is probably in the top 25 for great inventions.

There goes my healthy dinner.

The rest of the night, I finished replying to all the birthday messages I received. One thing I find irritating, is when people send a mass message out to everyone they know, thanking them for the birthday wishes. I've explained why I dislike this in one of my first blog posts ever.

I feel like if someone is nice enough to remember/notice that it's my birthday, and calls, sends a message, or whatever, they deserve a personal response. Now next, year when I'm insanely famous, and the 1,934,866 members of the "Arun is Awesome" fan club send me birthday wishes, obviously that will be different, but for the time being, everyone gets my personal attention.

But, not to worry! My birthday is not going to pass without some kind of excessive celebration! This weekend, we are making a little hop over to Sin City. Maybe I'll get a little birthday luck on tables!

Welp, onward to 26. So far the Quarter Century Club has welcomed me with open arms. I just think they're happy to have someone with youthful vibrancy, age-old wisdom, and...yes, of course I'm going to say it....the aesthetics of a man in his prime, in the club! But, I won't be running for president anytime soon.