Happy Birthday Harry Styles!

Things I'm looking forward to in March

March is a tricky month for me. On the one hand, the anniversary of my mother's death is March 1 and for the past 8 years that date has just laid waiting to ambush and depress me at the beginning of the month.  But March is also my birth month (seriously the BEST month to have been born), and it was my mother's favorite time of the year, what with the change in weather and the cherry blossoms etc. so I also can find room for happy memories. And this year especially, I've got a bunch of things to look forward to.

First off, I'm not the only person I care about having a birthday this month. Several close friends and family also share March as the best birth month. So I have a bunch of great parties and celebrations to look forward to in March.

• I'm proud to be a part of the fun choral group - the Northwest Firelight Chorale - and we have our annual, mucial theater fundraiser dinner theater/silent auction evening on March 21, 2015. It promises to be an amazing and fantastic night!

• Kyle Chandler finally back on my television? And with Ben Mendelsohn? YES, PLEASE.

 

Is it March 20th yet?

• I've quit caffeine and I'm really making a commitment to start swimming on a regular basis in an effort to cure the insomnia that's been plagueing me for months. It's been really bad lately, and so I'm making March the month that I conquer this! Or at least get at least 6 hours of sleep a night. Yeah, that's right, I don't even get SIX hours of sleep on a typical night. It's pathetic.

Happy Birthday to me - Over The Hill edition

Today is my 40th birthday. Yikes! And while I want and should be feeling like Charlie and Snoopy above, today I've mostly been thinking about my mom and a conversation she and I had on her 40th birthday back when I was in 7th grade. Back then, the thought of being forty was totally unfathomable to me. I thought for sure by 2011 we'd be flying around in space cars and that I'd have 4 kids and be living in some Blade Runner-esque world. When mom turned 40 she was super excited but also a little frightened. At the time she was contemplating leaving her job and beginning a whole new career, and she was dealing with the fact that her beloved mother was very sick and probably in the last months of her life (which turned out to be correct). Of course, she didn't share any of these big concerns with me; instead she talked with me about how when you're a teenager or young adult you tend to make all these plans that never actually become realized. And that that's okay. That the whole "everything happens for a reason" "God always has a plan" sentiments are actually pretty true. And how things are are how they were meant to be. My mom told me that when she was a freshman in college she imagined herself at 40 as being some famous artist living in Europe with a gaggle of children and some fancy bohemian husband. But that her reality, living in the nation's capitol, mother of an only child who she was raising practically on her own because of her husband's out of town job; was a better reality, and the right reality for her.

So here I am forty years old today. And I don't have a space car. Nor do I have any kids, much less four. I'm not a famous photojournalist working for National Geographic; my dream at 9. I'm not a marine biologist; my dream at 19. I'm not a famous novelist; yet. I work in health care, with Medicare policy. I live by myself with a dog I inherited in a lovely modern home in Seattle, WA. I have wonderful friends. I'm doing ok. This is my reality. It's the right reality for me.

Happy belated Birthday Cheyenne Jackson! aka "Gay Heaven"

In honor of Cheyenne reaching the milestone birthday of 35 yesterday, I thought I'd repost one of my favorite pictures taken earlier this year at a charity function.

Can you imagine having Jackson and Jackman singing to you...naked?

Need a moment? Thought so.

Happy birthday to me!

The image on the left represents how I'd like to say I'm feeling today on my 38th birthday. But I'd be lying if I said that I was channeling any Xanadu-feelgoodness.

Here instead is a small list of things I'm currently grateful for:
- I don't have appendicitis
- I have a stable job and no current financial worries
- I get to see Carras and the girls in less than 2 weeks!
- I didn't fall off the stage during either of our opening weekend performances (although I did forget to sing one song verse in Sunday's show)

And suffice to say that I feel blessed to have such a great group of friends and family who have gone out of their way to send me birthday wishes and make me feel loved and appreciated. Kisses to you all!