It's My Birthday Too

Well, the ol' birthday has rolled around again, and I'm feelin' fine. Gary played the Beatles birthday song for me and gave me beads. At a little gathering later in the day, I was surrounded by members of my fan club. I felt loved and cherished. Honestly, what more could I ask for?

Well, I do like a little gifty... And there were plenty of those--meaningful, fun, and funny presents chosen just for me. Here's one that had to be immediately set up on my desk. My very own "Day at the Beach," complete with shells, beach ball, and umbrella. One can dream.

Big Brother, How Far Is Too Far?

Google Maps has a photo of my house on their website. You can see the front of my cute little ranch and my beautiful garden. You can walk up and down my street and turn in a circle and see all of my neighbor's houses, too. In fact, my whole neighborhood, along with much of Denver and its suburbs, has been visually mapped and is available for the whole world to see.

It's so totally cool and kind of weird and creepy all at the same time. No doubt it will keep me from getting lost as I tool around here in the city. I'm one of those "turn left at the second church after the 7-11" kind of people rather than a "go south on Speer for 2.1 miles and then turn left on Larimer" kind of people. If I can see it, it's real. I truly appreciate of a tool that allows those of us who are "direction challenged" a fighting chance.

And I did go to Beijing, China on Google Maps to see what I could see. They have cute little suburban houses, palatial estates, and vast seas of tiny little apartments housed in big towers. I plan to travel to more destinations to improve my understanding of other cultures, even if it's just by looking at where they live.

So is the map project Big Brother going too far, or is it taking us one step closer to brotherhood?

People Do Change

(photo courtesy of www.freefoto.com)

Last year for our anniversary, I gave Gary a year's worth of quotes in a jar. I spent many hours looking for perfect quotes, printing them out in beautiful fonts, then making each one a unique piece of art using paper, stamps, pens, ribbon, and stickers. The quotes were by people Gary respected and admired, or words of wisdom I thought particularly apt given his circumstances.

Every week he pulled out a new quote and shared it with me. It was something we both looked forward to because it made us think. Finally, he reached the end of the quotes and, to my great delight, put them all back in the jar so that he could start over again.

Here's this week's quote, which comes at a time when I need to remember the beauty of the mysteries of my fellow man:

People do change,

and change comes like a little wind

that ruffles the curtains at dawn,

and it comes like the stealthy perfume

of wildflowers hidden in the grass.

~John Steinbeck

Good for a Laugh

My mom sent me a Herman cartoon that she cut out of the paper. It's a picture of one old guy in a suit sitting in an executive chair across a desk from another old guy in a suit. Old guy #2 is wearing a spotted, tall party hat with the big fringe around the bottom, and it's tilting slightly to one side. He's saying, "I always wear my lucky hat for job interviews."

My mom wrote a note on the edge of the cartoon: Erin--This may be why you never get the job.

I laughed out loud, and every time I look at it, it makes me smile. It was a welcome light note in a week of bad news, bronchitis, and bumming out. The lesson? Never, ever lose your sense of humor.