It's my 50th birthday!

Well you aren't dead which seems to be the preferred outcome for a 50th birthday. Congrats!
- I mean at least not yet. Thanks!

welcome to the club fellow but slightly younger Xer. hows your health and retirement savings.
- Health actually quite good. Um, the other is not. I'll never retire. I'll die at my desk with my BPD patient screaming in my ear like she does each week that she needs to come off her medication because it's giving her a rash, the medication she's been on for like eight years, lol.
  
  Did you grow up thinking the work hours would go down as we got older and the retirement age would go down as we made our way to star trek utopia. I did and I hate this cyberpunk future we live in.

Congrats! Oh, to be that young again!
- Thank you! I honestly like 99% feel the same as I ever did. My knees ache somewhat, and I will admit I'd like some Botox, but I honestly am having an absolute breeze of menopause and my health, knock on wood, is as fine as ever. I'm pretty lucky.

Noice. What are your birthday plans?
- Doing some cross border Black Friday clothes shopping! While it's still safe to go to the US and the economy isn't fucked all to hell by the orange rapist. As they say on Letterkenny, if the Yanks have one thing sorted it's their shopping.
  
  Sounds like a good day then, and since you're in the same "overall" geography as me, a beautiful day for it, to boot. Have fun!

It was at 50 that I started to realize that I was on the downhill slope of my life. I had more days behind me than I have in front.
That is not a bad thing. Every day becomes more precious. It focuses you on things that are truly important and what legacy you may leave.
Happy birthday! I hope it and all the future ones are brilliant.
- Thanks!!

Happy birthday! Are you gonna do anything fun today?
- Cross border clothes shopping on Black Friday!
  
  Oooh nice! Looking for anything on particular or just browsing? I sound like a salesperson lol

Any lessons?
- It really makes your life and the life of others better if you are friendly, welcoming, helpful, and polite. Especially when things are hard for them. You can't fix everything but you can be a light in the darkness for someone simply by making the effort to go a little bit further.
  Also life is way too precious to stay in relationships with toxic narcissistic borderline family members.

That's 62 in base 8. Or 32 in base 16.
- It's absolutely true. Whatever that is haha.
  
  Nerdy way of expressing "age is just a number" :)

Happy birthday! Every decade i think, "this is the best!" Embrace being young enough to still do most of the things you enjoy and being old enough to (sometimes) know which ones to skip. https://youtu.be/NJf5DMVa5kQ?feature=shared
- I will! Thank you.

Half a century! Happy birthday!
- It feels so weird. Like it all happened so fast but then I think about before I went to kindergarten and what life was like. I can remember as far back as being 2 years old and getting immunized at the doctor's and being extremely brave about it. I still am brave and I got my flu and COVID shots last month.