[qt:\/blog\/video\/2011-0701_Seattle.mov \/blog\/video\/2011-0706_poster.jpg \/blog\/video\/2011-0701_Seattle.mov 500 375]<\/p>\n
Even though I had to work what ended up being a very long day (9am until just after midnight), there were two things that really made my birthday a great day.
\nFirst, all of the Facebook and email well wishes from friends and family. On the surface it seems so simple and in some ways impersonal, but psychologically it was a awesome. All day my phone was “dinging” with new messages every time a new message was posted, and it was just nice to know that people took the time to write something.<\/p>\n
Second, the crew threw me a mini-birthday party at the end of the night just as I was finishing up and all the shoots were done. My last several birthdays have been on the road, and this was a gift in itself and made me really happy. I always tell people it’s no big deal and not to do anything, but if you’ve ever actually had people do nothing<\/em> for your birthday, it’s kind of depressing.<\/p>\n Anyway, a big thanks to everybody – especially the on-site crew. Turning a year older today wasn’t so bad after all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [qt:\/blog\/video\/2011-0701_Seattle.mov \/blog\/video\/2011-0706_poster.jpg \/blog\/video\/2011-0701_Seattle.mov 500 375] Even though I had to work what ended up being a very long day (9am until just after midnight), there were two things that really made my birthday a great day. First, all of the Facebook and email well wishes from friends and family. On the surface it seems so […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":86,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,43,5],"tags":[121,14],"class_list":["post-3602","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-text","category-travel","category-video","tag-birthday","tag-tom"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p47XZT-W6","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3671,"url":"https:\/\/tomchak.com\/blog\/2011\/08\/01\/happy-birthday-brenda\/","url_meta":{"origin":3602,"position":0},"title":"Happy Birthday Brenda!","author":"Thomas Tomchak","date":"August 1, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"On this most awesome day of August 1st 2011, I would like to wish my beautiful wife and loving mother to 3 crazy kids a Happy Birthday. Enjoy that long quiet ride back from Michigan. It's the most alone time you'll have for years to come.","rel":"","context":"In "Text Post"","block_context":{"text":"Text Post","link":"https:\/\/tomchak.com\/blog\/category\/text\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tomchak.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/5711519406_838465b2ce_o.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4027,"url":"https:\/\/tomchak.com\/blog\/2011\/12\/31\/two-turn-four-happy-birthday-boys\/","url_meta":{"origin":3602,"position":1},"title":"Two turn Four – Happy Birthday Boys!","author":"Thomas Tomchak","date":"December 31, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Happy New Year, and happy Birthday to our little boys Andrew and Max who turned 4 years old today at 8:02 and 8:04 am. We had a great family day complete with a field trip to see holiday trains and cake and gifts. I wonder what this day will be\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Photo Post"","block_context":{"text":"Photo Post","link":"https:\/\/tomchak.com\/blog\/category\/photo\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tomchak.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/2011-1231_twinsbirthday_088-600x400.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tomchak.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/2011-1231_twinsbirthday_088-600x400.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tomchak.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/2011-1231_twinsbirthday_088-600x400.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4298,"url":"https:\/\/tomchak.com\/blog\/2012\/11\/27\/happy-birthday-baby-girl\/","url_meta":{"origin":3602,"position":2},"title":"Happy Birthday Baby Girl – You’re 3 Years Old!","author":"Thomas Tomchak","date":"November 27, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Happy birthday baby girl. We love you very much and our lives are so blessed with you in it.\u00a0 More photos on SmugMug.\u00a0","rel":"","context":"In "Photo Post"","block_context":{"text":"Photo Post","link":"https:\/\/tomchak.com\/blog\/category\/photo\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tomchak.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/2012-1127_SydneyBirthday__017.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tomchak.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/2012-1127_SydneyBirthday__017.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tomchak.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/2012-1127_SydneyBirthday__017.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3921,"url":"https:\/\/tomchak.com\/blog\/2011\/11\/28\/our-princess-turns-two\/","url_meta":{"origin":3602,"position":3},"title":"Our Princess Turns Two","author":"Thomas Tomchak","date":"November 28, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm just so thankful everyday for having our loving daughter Sydney. She lights up my heart whenever she smiles at me. While she was a unexpected surprise, it's impossible to imagine how life would be without her. She is truly a gift from god. This Sunday she turned 2 years\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Photo Post"","block_context":{"text":"Photo Post","link":"https:\/\/tomchak.com\/blog\/category\/photo\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tomchak.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/2011-1127_Sydney_2yrsOld_008-682x1024.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tomchak.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/2011-1127_Sydney_2yrsOld_008-682x1024.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tomchak.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/2011-1127_Sydney_2yrsOld_008-682x1024.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":171,"url":"https:\/\/tomchak.com\/blog\/2007\/07\/05\/happy-birthday-my-tommy\/","url_meta":{"origin":3602,"position":4},"title":"Happy Birthday My Tommy","author":"Thomas Tomchak","date":"July 5, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Brenda made me a nice photo today since she couldn\u2019t be with me on my birthday.","rel":"","context":"In "Photo Post"","block_context":{"text":"Photo Post","link":"https:\/\/tomchak.com\/blog\/category\/photo\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tomchak.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/03\/5007746_500.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2091,"url":"https:\/\/tomchak.com\/blog\/2009\/11\/12\/trinas-surprise-birthday-party\/","url_meta":{"origin":3602,"position":5},"title":"Trina’s Surprise Birthday Party","author":"Thomas Tomchak","date":"November 12, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"This past Saturday family and friends celebrated Trina's 50th birthday at a local bar in Elgin. 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Below are a few photos, but there are WAY more on SmugMug.","rel":"","context":"In "Photo Post"","block_context":{"text":"Photo Post","link":"https:\/\/tomchak.com\/blog\/category\/photo\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"2009-11-07_img_1595","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tomchak.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/2009-11-07_img_1595-600x400.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tomchak.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/2009-11-07_img_1595-600x400.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tomchak.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/2009-11-07_img_1595-600x400.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomchak.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3602","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomchak.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomchak.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomchak.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/86"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomchak.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3602"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/tomchak.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3602\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3603,"href":"https:\/\/tomchak.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3602\/revisions\/3603"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomchak.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomchak.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomchak.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}