I turned 50 on January 28th. It was a pretty exciting birthday for me. For a person who didn’t think they would make it to eighteen, 50 years old feels like an achievement. 18 seemed like one too, but more like one that was achieved by luck. 50 took a lot more work.

In honor and remembrance of my 50th year on this planet, I would like to list 50 random thoughts that have been jumbling around in my head…

1. 50 is the age that I consider to be “officially old™”. I am okay with that. Being 50 is a privilege and rite of passage.
2. When I was younger, I was very unhappy, but also very lucky. I have a family who loves me and has always  taken care of me the best that they could. It is thanks to them and other kind souls that have befriended me over the years that I am still here to write this post.
3. Over the years, I have managed to make a few very close friends and to become closer to my family.
4. Being with Karen has been an adventure in love and life that provides joy and hope even at the hardest times.
5. Life has been extra challenging since we moved to Baltimore 6 years ago and I do not see an end to that any time soon.
6. My day to day life is kind of lonely and I have not made many close friends here.
7. I am not good at having friends, and not completely sure how I have managed to make such good ones over the years.
8. It is hard for me to be with people and in crowds, and hard to concentrate well enough to keep up with conversations. It drains me until my brain completely shuts down.
9. Running my business is a challenge and I work way too many hours for way too little pay.
10. I am good at my job and I am bad at running a business. Still, I keep trying year after year and make enough money that it would be badly missed if I didn’t have it, but is barely above the poverty level and much less than it would be if I was working with or for somebody who knew how to manage a business.
11. I am still hoping to find my “magic business partner”  or employer someday.
12. Even with all the challenges, life has been good to me in so many ways and I am very thankful for that.
13. I am glad we are here to help K’s parents.
14. I love Baltimore and many of the people I have met here.
15. I love being with Karen and Nikkyo and Buster (cats) and living in our awesome apartment (Thanks Lisa!).
16. I love my karate school, and sometimes wish I could just do karate all the time.
17. I wish Karen and I had enough time and money to get out of town once in a while.
18. I wish we had enough money to not stress about it so much. Maybe money can’t buy happiness, but it can relieve stress and less stress can cause happiness.
19. I miss Lake Merritt in Oakland and the San Francisco Bay.
20. I wish I could work for AWN (Autism Women’s Network) full time.
21. I wish I had more time to code for fun and not just for work. I have some ideas for projects that would teach me new skills, possibly lead to income, and/or would provide a helpful service to some people, but no time to work on them.
22. I miss my family terribly. It is easier to see them now that we live on the same coast again, but still hard for me to travel, especially on airplanes. I wish we lived in driving distance of each other.
23. I miss the Russian River and Armstrong Woods.
24. I wish the world made sense and that people didn’t lie.
25. I wish that people really cared about each other and helped each other.
26. The only thing about turning fifty that has made it seem very old is writing this list and realizing how many items 50 actually is.
27. I am pretty sure I spend more time than the average person thinking about dinosaurs.
28. I like to spar.
29. I wish my brain worked “right”, but am not completely sure I would want to be a RegularPerson™.
30. I have been a vegetarian for 30 years and think that if I started eating meat again I would have more energy. Was going to try it when I was 50, but as of yet, have not.
31. I think I would excel at being a cat.
32. “Cutting the Cord” is much cheaper than cable TV, but I miss the ease of use and channel availability of Comcast.
33. I wish the haters would always lose. I am not sure what that means for me if I hate the haters.
34. I used to build and fix “WinTel” computers, and was amazed at the awesome quality, reliability, and ease of use when I switched to macs 13 years ago.
35. I first learned to program on an Apple IIe that my dad had, and a Commodore 64 and VIC-20 that were at my high school.
36. I rarely took part in extra-curricular activities when I was in school, but over the years spent some time as a member of the computer club, Mathletes, and the Spanish club.
37. When I was younger, I understood Hebrew pretty well. I can still read it, but have a very limited vocabulary now.
38. I love WordPress.
39. I love Laravel more than I love WordPress, but see many advantages to using WordPress for the types of websites I most often build for my clients.
40. I love Drupal, but have no reason to use it. Sometimes I go out of my way to look for a reason.
41. If I had time, I would learn Python.
42. Lisa baked me the best cake in the whole world for my 50th birthday. Thanks Lisa!
43. I like cold weather when I have the appropriate outerwear.
44. Hexagons make me feel peaceful.
45. I am a cat person and a dog person, but prefer cats because they are easier to take care of.
46. I occasionally contemplate what life would be like if I was a panda.
47. I am a lot like my dad.
48. I wish I was also a lot like my mom. She is a social and organizational genius.
49. I like to play video games and currently play WoW. The Fallout series is probably my favorite of all time.
50. I would like to learn how to play D&D or something similar with real people.