Thanks for all the birthday wishes. Monday was uneventful. I got up, did a few things around the house, and went to work. The roommates weren't around, but I found my friend Josh so I could have someone to enjoy a cigar with. Gone are the glamour of the birthdays of youth; yet, it's not as depressing as one might think.

In other news, I now realize that I have made a horrible mistake.

I should have spent the summer in the mountains. My excuse that I wouldn't make enough money to afford expenses like rent and car payments didn't fly. Had I known that the only job in CF I could get my hands on would be for 20 hours a week at minimum wage, I would have hit the road for Estes. My weekly pay at the Y was 155 dollars; however, my biweekly paycheck at the movie theater is about 160 dollars.

But my reasons aren't purely monetary. I ache for the wind in my face, the smell of the clinging pines of treeline, the warmth of a fireplace on cool mountain evenings. There's a pain at the knowledge that I could have been there again, that I should have been there again.

Josh and I have set the date for our excursion to the Rockies, though the details are to be worked out. Still, it's comforting to know that for one week in August the pain will subside.