100 on 33 by Rob

I biked 100 miles on my 33rd birthday.  I could go on and on about the ride but I think instead I'll talk about my contemplations on my age which I mulled over during my hours on the road.

I was thinking about how big and old and "grown up" 33 sounds to me.  What a good, hearty, symmetrical number.  It sure feels like a whole lot of years.  Then I doubled it:  66, a typical retirement age.  That also seems like a whole lot of years, but somehow the first half of 66 seems longer than the second half.  I guess that's because I spent that time maturing from infant to child to teenager to young adult to mature adult.  What happens for the next 33 years?  Adulthood and more adulthood.  That doesn't sound very interesting but it really is a whole heck of a lot of time.  So I spent the first 33 years getting the whole "maturation" thing out of the way, and now I have yet another 33 years to enjoy being an adult, but still growing and learning in new ways.  If I retire at 66 and then go on to live to be 99 that's another 33 years where I can enjoy life without having to go to work all the time.  Sweet!  There's no guarantees, though, so I'll be enjoying it one day at a time as it happens.  In conclusion, it has been a long ride but I still have many miles to go!*

* Do you see what I did there?  I turned my birthday contemplations into a biking metaphor.  Pretty clever, right?!

Here's how I celebrated my birthday:

1. Woke up at 5am
2. Biked 100 miles (6:45am-2:00pm, avg speed 16mph)
3. Protein shake, shower, nap
4. Ate leftover eggplant parmesan
5. Finished watching "Grizzly Man"
6. Made Reese's Brownies, and ate them (oh, so good!!)
7. Drank some adult beverages
8. Watched "Men Who Stare at Goats" on Netflix
9. Watched "OK Go" videos with Gabrielle as I wrote this post.