Birthday #34

Me and my new Dakota hoodie (thanks, Mumzy!).

I'm not much of a birthday dude. For me, they serve to mark how far I have to go, and how much I've fucked up, and my impending mortality. Yeah, leave it to me to be positive.
However, I'm fully aware that I'm blessed, and you can't tell me otherwise:

• I've married my best friend, a woman that truly changed my life for the better.
• My mom rules, even when we don't see eye-to-eye, which is rarer nowadays.
• I was born and raised in Winnipeg, that perennial underdog of Canadian cities. There are times when this place drives me crazy*, but I can't think of a more nurturing environment be from. Anytime I think of leaving (there have been many), it's the little things about Peg Gritty that draw me back.
• Speaking of Winnipeg, thanks to this place, I know what community is all about. Just by stepping outside, I'm bound to run into rappers, members of killer rock n' roll combos, painters, film buffs, writers...all of whom I'm connected to not because of the possibilities of personal upward mobility, but because we just want to make cool shit and a little bit of sense in this crazy-ass world. And we genuinely like and /or love each other. And we're sexy. Because of the cold-ass winters.
• Through gigposters.com, I've been taught things that college couldn't. The site has given me the eyes and ears of the most talented people on the planet, which has pushed me to be a better illustrator and designer. And in the case of certain assholes that have hung out there, past and present, I'm also a better human being. Eternal props to you, Clay, for giving a place to hang out and learn something.

So yeah, even though it doesn't always sound like it, I'm thankful to be alive. Thanks to you.

* To see what I mean, y'gotta visit Winnipeg: Love and Hate, run by Bryan Scott. Unflinching admiration/condemnation for the place I call home via breathtaking photography.