A Most Unusual Birthday

The car pictured here is a Cadillac convertible with a continental tire.  It has been one of my dream cars forever.  This one was new the year I was born.  I think that's all we have in common other than our lovely body design, powerful engine and love of luxury.

Seriously, thinking that this car is as old as I am, still looks good and is still desirable, gives me hope!  And just the fact that I am still having birthdays at my age is reassuring.  Especially when they are as unusual as this one turned out to be, starting with a 4.3 earthquake centered a few miles way at 5:56am.  The dogs sat up and the bed shook.  We waited to see if it was The Big One, but it wasn't.  It was Birthday Morning, though, and a subtle reminder that things can change quite suddenly.

I was scheduled to help at my most recent avocation, working at my friends' new enterprise, Orange Empire Estate Liquidators and Sales.  Have been doing this for about two months now.  I have to say it is fun.  Interesting homes with interesting items belonging to interesting people.  We "stage" the sale then for three days, prospective buyers hunt and pick.  What better way to celebrate a birthday than doing something Fun?

Of course just to spice things up, someone left a ten week old kitten at the sale.  I didn't see the guy, but apparently he was quite careless, waving the kitty in the air and shouting, "Anyone was a kitten?"  My tender hearted friend Kerry (owner of OEELS) rescued it.  And after a long day, this little ball of grey fur who will probably have long, luxurious fur, came home with me.  She is really a sweetie.  Slept in my lap all the way home from Moreno Valley.  Beautiful grey-green eyes.  I'm not gonna keep here...no.  But he name is Grayce, and she is so very cute.

To top of a perfect and perfectly different birthday, I attended a memorial service for a good friend from church.  She was just a couple years older than me, but truly did so much more with her life than I ever will.  She serviced the Red Cross in Viet Nam and Bosnia and many years in the states.  She headed up the Dickens Festival Tea at church and then the Riverside Dickens Festival itself for several years.  She was an amazing woman with and adoring husband who is also one of those truly good guys.  Although I didn't want my birthday recognized at this event, someone told him, and he got the crowd to sing Happy Birthday to me.  So very sweet (and embarassing).

Anyway, I think all these things made this birthday one that i will never forget.  I like to think I might be something of classic, like that Cadillac pictured above.  But I do know that birthdays are a time for reflection and assessing my plans for the future.  Deep thoughts as it were.  And always at memorial services, I find myself wondering what will be said at my memorial service (should there be one) and will be an honest appraisal.  I do know it must include excerpts from the Wizard of Oz, I Love Lucy and the hymns my grandmother sang  while cleaning house.

All in all it was a grand birthday.  Real and natural.  Many, many good wishes and thoughts on Facebook, email and even some old-fashioned cards in the US mail!  I will rest well tonight feeling the love.  Sometimes I forget that this rock I have thrown into the lake of life causes some many lovely ripples in other peoples lives.   It's all part of being a member of the human family.

Happy birthday to me dare I say?  You betcha.  

---