Today is my birthday.

I’m not saying this in the hopes that I’ll get a whole mess of Happy Birthday wishes dropped into the comments section below. In fact, I don’t much care for birthdays. Well, mine anyway. I have a long history of bad ones, some borderline horrific even. No matter what happens, I always seem to wind up disappointed or in tears.

I think this is the year that all turns around, though. (Knock on wood.)

In addition to being my birthday, this is also my first official day off of work. It feels good. Really good. I’m here, I’m free, and I feel fantastic. And I’ve been up since 6am. Most mornings I hit the snooze button until about ten minutes to eight, which was the very latest I could stay in bed and still make it to work at a semi-reasonable time.

Not today. Today I saw the sun rise. I had things to wake up for.

When I got home on Friday night after a round (or four) of drinks with two of my former co-workers, there was a sign taped to the bedroom closet that read, “Do not open until Feb. 1!” It’s a good thing I keep most of my clothes in the dresser. Though if I’m being honest, most of my clothes are in the hamper. Laundry getting done: another perk of me being home.

So this morning, finally being Feb. 1, Chris opened up the closet and piled a bunch of boxes wrapped in Happy Birthday paper on the bed. I tore through the wrapping, and a couple of t-shirts and a book later, I opened this:

A GelPro mat.

I have wanted a GelPro mat since I first knew they existed. We have brutally hard tile floors in our kitchen and after a couple hours spent baking, or cleaning, or a whole day of canning projects, my heel bones feel like knives and my back is spent. These mats offer cushiony gel support, which will hopefully make those aches and pains a thing of the past. This is important, since I’m now going to be spending more time in that kitchen than ever. Kind of makes me want to pull out the canner and really test this puppy out. Hmm…citrus is at its peak right now. Maybe some marmalade?

But the thing that I’m really in love with, the very last box that I opened, was a DSLR. A Nikon D5000 to be exact.

It seems that when you start blogging, particularly about food, an interest in photography quickly follows…or so I’ve heard. Well, it certainly happened for me. Up until now, the camera I used to shoot the photos for this blog was a point and shoot that Chris and I shared. Occasionally they’d be taken with my iPhone. If I do say so myself, I’ve become pretty handy with that point and shoot—I can create an okay bokeh, capture a clean looking shot in good lighting—but I’ve been feeling the limitations as of late, knowing that my pictures were lacking a certain…quality.

I can already feel the difference with this camera. From the very first shot.

I know I still have a lot to learn, but I’m eager and interested. Generally a good combination. I feel like I have everything that I need now, plus a few extras. All I need to do is get cooking.

And I think my birthday curse may be broken. Chris has dinner plans for us tonight, so unless he takes me to the Gluten Shack for the all you can eat bread basket, we should be just fine.