I turned 40 this year
On 1 August, to be precise.
Everything went smoothly. Except for the mother of all colds, of course.
In the hot summer, I caught a cold that lasted me almost 10 days.
In all the five years when I was vegan, I’d never caught such a cold as strong as this one.
Never in my 5 and a half years of being vegan had I caught such a cold.
This prompted me to look at what I was eating.
It reminded me that perhaps the plant based diet I’d abandoned over a year ago has its merits.
I remembered a piece of information from my vegan studies: eating animal products increases inflammation in the body.
I immediately started eating plant-based foods and took a break from ham and cheese.
The cold started subsiding after a day or two.
The Birthday Surprise
My girlfriend / life partner went out of her way to prepare a nice birthday surprise for me.
The yummy cake:
And a gathering of my closest friends (and one relative) in one of the coffee shops I feel most welcome.
I’m the one beneath the letter T.
I look a bit tipsy because of the cold.
And my hair is a mess because I always postpone getting a haircut.
Until my hair is barely manageable anymore.
Madam Dragon is the short one next to me, the one with colored hair.
Kids love her red hair, especially little girls.
But don’t let her smile fool you. She’s not to be trifled with.
She’ll eat you alive if you ever cross her. So I take good care not to.
She is the one who made this reunion possible.
She loves throwing parties.
These are my good friends. And one relative – the guy in black. He’s my cousin.
He’s cool. Ah heck, he’s a good friend too.
We’ve only been distant in the past few years, that’s all.
Well, I’ve been the one distant, actually.
The Past Year
New energy has been entering my personal universe in the year leading up to my 40’s.
It’s been in the form of new books, new mentors and even new projects I’m working on.
New books:
- Happy Money by Ken Honda
- Keep Going by Austin Kleon
- Building A Second Brain by Tiago Forte
New Software and Ideas
- Obsidian
- Digital Gardening
- Personal Knowledge Management
New Mentors
- Ali Abdaal
- Campbell Walker (struthless)
- Nir Eyal
- Dan Koe
New Projects
- MASS_YAML – a C# App to read/write YAML data to markdown files
- MERGE_PDF – A C# Translator’s Utility App I made for Madam Dragon to help her merge her PDF’s
- The C# YAML Course I finally published on Udemy
- Reality Frameworks on YouTube
- Romanian Voiceovers on YouTube
- This site (realityframeworks.com FTW!)
- Voiceover Gig on Fiverr
- The Notes Garden
Quite a few projects. No wonder I feel my focus is too split sometimes.
My 30’s were tough
They were a bit rough, especially towards the end.
Health issues, losing a family member, trouble with the neighbors.
Not to mention the bloody pandemic and all the changes it brought.
They left me a bit tired and disillusioned.
It took a while to find my way back to myself, but with great support, I made it.
My 30’s had their good parts too.
Madam Dragon came into my life. And she wouldn’t leave.
I went abroad multiple times. I enjoyed my 30’s, to be honest.
Until I didn’t. I feel more mature now.
It’s as if time has its way of forcing you into maturing, like it or not.
I still try to keep my joie de vivre intact, but, apparently, it’s inappropriate for a 40-year old guy to be too joyful.
Screw it, I’m still gonna express my joy, though. In private.
If there’s anything my 30’s taught me is this – life is change.
Nothing lasts forever.
Fuck, nothing lasts forever.
The good and the bad, it can all be gone in a second, sooner or later.
But, I’m still here.
And mostly because of the support I got.
And the beautiful people in my life.
Madam Dragon is top of the list.
So, thank you to all!
To her and also to my friends.
Cousin included.
