forgetting my age

This is the year it actually happened. The idea of such a lapse always amazed me, made me laugh and shake my head, especially in my youth. "How old are you?" "Seven and a half." Or, "I'll be eighteen in three months." "I just turned thirty." And so on. How could someone forget anything so basic?

Forgetting one's age is something I heard rumors about, something that happened to certain absent-minded old people. But this year, 2010, is the year that the calendar rolled around to my birthday, and in all honesty I did not know how old I was. I'm still fuzzy about it, and have to pull out my pocket calculator because I don't feel like I really know it in my heart.

What I think happened is that on my last birthday, I pondered the upcoming birthday so much (with a feeling of dread, I might add, for no particular numeric reason) that I began to think I'd already reached that year.

And that (ahem!) is pretty much all I feel I'd like to say on the subject at present, except to add that I celebrate my birthday from September 15 to October 15 anyway, so why should I worry about getting anything exactly right?

Happy birthday to me.