1.  I love birthdays.  I love partying with family and friends, there’s nothing like it.  A couple thoughts about celebrating getting older:

a.  Age is a state of mind; however, one’s body isn’t always on board.

b. When people say, “You’re 29 and holding” that just means you look NOTHING like a 29 year old.

c.  I’ve gotten over the embarrassment of people singing “Happy Birthday” to me. I use to cringe, now I embrace it.

d. I rarely remember the gift, but I always remember who I was with and where we were at.  Friendship is the best gift.

e. I can’t believe what a charmed life I live.  Family, friends and this amazing community.  I feel the love. I will never take it for granted.

2.  Okay, I’m just thinking out loud here, but if a younger man flirts with an older woman, she doesn’t qualify as a “Cougar”, right?

That being said, Casey Abrams singing to me at Squashed Grapes recently was too freakin’ cool.  You might recognize him from American Idol.  He is self taught – by ear – on eleven musical instruments, the man is such a talent!  There were a handful of us hanging out after his show and when he sat down at the piano and asked what song we wanted to hear.  I said, “You know what I want to hear” to which he said, ‘I’ll play it only if you sit next to me.”

Here is a video that was taken afterhours when Casey Abrams performed “Cougartown”  July 26 here in Ventura:

3.  For my bi-lingual friends:  I love that somebody poised the question: “What if Soy milk is just regular milk introducing itself in Spanish?

4.  When you see an obviously photoshopped picture, don’t you wonder, “Who do they think they’re kidding?”

5.  As you may or may not know, I am on a quest to spot an owl in the wild.  I understand they are nocturnal, so I look at dusk and dawn and in the evening, but my night vision really sucks.  I spoke to my optometrist about it complaining that the Lasek surgery I had diminished my night vision, but sadly he said, “No, it comes with old age.”
Fucker.

6.  Funny anecdote from my marriage.  One weekend we decided to take Sydney Rose up to the local mountains for her first encounter with Snow.   As we drove through the winding roads, we finally got high enough to see the fluffy white stuff on our way to Mountain High ski resort.  It was at this point that Sydney started shouting, adamantly I might add, “NO NO NO!!!”  So much so that Chris stopped the car because we were so startled.  Turns out she couldn’t enunciate the “s” yet, so “Snow” became “No”!

7. On the subject of breasts, my daughter said she’s been told that more than a handful is too much. Of course, only small breasted women believe that.  HA!  I am JUST KIDDING!!! But that being said, of course men have their preferences.  I know a man who loves teeny weeny hardly-there breasts.  I never dated him of course because clearly we are not a match..

8.  Another real book title:  Knitting with Dog Hair: Better a Sweater From a Dog You Know And Love Than From a Sheep You’ll Never Meet.

Creepy?
Now I’m re-thinking those sweaters in my closet.  Is sheep hair kind of creepy too?

9.   Do you remember seeing E.T. The Extraterrestrial for the first time?  Or Jurassic Park or Indiana Jones Temple of Doom? Independence Day?  So thrilling!

10.  From my favorite quotes file:  “My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style.”  – Maya Angelou

Thanks for listening!