I am unwritten ...

Drench yourself in words unspoken, live your life with arms wide open. Today is where your book begins, the rest is still unwritten. -- Natasha Bedingfield, "Unwritten"

I'm officially old today.

OK, not really, but in the last week or so, I couldn't help but think of that fact that I have finally caught up with Lois Lane.

When L&C first started airing, I was 11 -- and Lois was 26. That sounded so grown-up to me. After all, she was so accomplished as a journalist -- and she had the hottest guy in the universe (literally) following after her with stars in his eyes.

So in honor of turning the same age as the venerable Ms. Lane, I decided to do my best come-hither journalistic minx pose in the Calvin Klein coat Chris gave me for my birthday and my beloved Coach sunglasses.

(And now that I'm looking at the pic, I see that I don't do come-hither so well.)

You can't really see my new highlights in the first pic(they're a very subtle chestnut color and best seen in natural light, and it was taken at midnight), but here's a better pic, taken Tuesday at work. I really like the color, and even better, it was free. (The stylist needed "models" to get certified to cut hair at the ultra-swanky Salon 7 in Seattle, and one of my bosses told me about it after she got her hair cut there.)

Anyway, new coat, new hair, new year.

I feel like birthdays are a personal new year of sorts -- on your birthday, you are presented with a clean slate. After all, the calendar year encompasses two different ages, and that can be both a blessing and a curse. Case in point: I got married in June 2006 (at age 23), and found out my husband was losing his job in December (at age 24). Likewise, in February 2007, I was on top of the world after earning a permanent position at The Times, and six months later, I turned 25 at rock bottom in the aftermath of my miscarriage.

24 was a year of change -- adjusting to married life, making the decision to have a child, geting my job, struggling to get pregnant, and then losing the baby ...

25 was a year of healing and self-discovery. It was a horrible year, but I feel like I learned a lot about myself, and there were definitely high points, especially my trip to L.A. and getting new opportunities at the paper, including slotting and my work in Editorial.

Today is where the 26th chapter of my book begins.

The rest is still unwritten.