I like dates.

I mean… I also like going on dates, but only if it’s not with a person I don’t know. I like dates with people I already know and love. Dates where I’m expected to convince someone to like me — or be convinced to like them — are actually pretty horrible. Doesn’t matter if it’s romantic or platonic. I’ve been on a few friend dates over the past few years, and wow, that shit is rough. There is so much pressure on a new friend date.

But that’s not what I mean.

I mean I like calendar dates.

Interesting spans of time. The numbers. Which is funny, because I’ve always felt deeply and unpleasantly pressured about math. That’s a whole other topic entirely — potentially one to delve into someday with my darling friend Kate. But until then: dates. Patterns. The way time lines itself up if you pay attention.

Here’s my current numerical sparkle: if it’s not a leap year, which it isn’t, and there’s a Friday the 13th in February, which there is, there will also be a Friday the 13th in March. And if there’s a Friday the 13th in March, it will be the Friday after my birthday.

So on the 8th of this month, I decided to do something intentional and nice for myself every day through my birthday.

Yesterday, I subscribed to the paid level of an app I’ve used for years. Nice for them. Nice for me. Check, checkity, check check.

Today, I signed up for a class I’ve wanted to take for a long time — one I’ve consistently told myself was frivolous.

What will tomorrow hold? I don’t know.

But then I realized… Friday the 13th was right there. The pull of it was intoxicating. So I extended it. Changed it up. I’d do something intentional and nice for myself every day through Friday, March 13th. Technically I’ve decided to go from 13th through 13th, but I did some solid warming up with those two days, and I’m going to give myself a pat on the head for it. That’s nice of me too.

I’m determined to celebrate this strange little patch of time the universe laid out and that I claimed. Maybe that’s the new thing. Maybe for one month a year I celebrate myself with the same love and fervor I show the people I love who aren’t me.

I’ve marked it on the calendar.