They Say It's Your Birthday!

Moonset of My Birthday Morning

Well, it's happened. I turned 40 today. Unbelievable! Unfortunately, I woke up with dreams of being stuck in a crowded shopping mall with Falcom, in full ADHD mode, waiting for people who were antagonizing me with text messages and overhead pages like, "You know you love shopping!" and "You can wait for us another couple of hours". They were such strange and aggravating dreams that I could not go back to sleep. I'm obviously not over yesterday's aggravations. When I got to my stairway landing, I looked out the window and saw the very orange moon setting. It was so beautiful. A nice birthday gift. (BTW: I have repeated the story of the agitating phone calls three more times and I think I may have crossed a threshold. Thank you Mindy, Wendy, and Mom!) I found out later that the moon is so awesome this week because of an enormous dust storm in the Gobi Desert and wild fires in Russia. Something global for my birthday!

I started the day with this fantastic Weight Watchers Style breakfast including turkey sausage and fresh papaya with key lime. I also drank strong coffee from my Bali Coffee Cup.
Then Marina and I moved boxes and while we were at Two Sisters we decided to have a cup of coffee and a sticky bun. At this point I broke with Weight Watchers and had a chocolate bun but I only ate half. I am definitely thanking God for all the Blessings, but today mostly the Sun! Thank you God for the birthday gift of Sun. Marina and I sat together and were joined by one of the judges from the Jubilee. He knew I was Falcom's mom and he was so intense with praise for Fal. He said that he felt that Falcom was like a prodigy. I mentioned Falcom's disappointment with not getting to sing the Hallelujah and he said it was more about the song being way too adult for the kids performance. Obviously, he doesn't realize it is in Shrek. It was also not a perky song and they have so many other young performers. And he said that Fal is only 8. There is time. He was so gushing with his praise. I told him that it really helped to hear that because some days are so tough, and he looked at me shocked. I guess we put on a good show. Falcom's art is hanging around town. This piece is at Two Sisters.


Then, Jubilee practice. Here I must say thank you to Irene for taking Marina and DeeJay and making Chammoro BBQ for them. They had a good time. While we sat. And sat. And waited. because, I have some good news and some bad news.

Irene wanted to hear the bad news first, so I'll tell you... Falcom is dead last in the show.
Good news? Falcom is last in the show. The Grand Finale.



Good news. He is great. And so alive on the stage. There are some great vocalists out there, but he really owns it. I don't know how to explain it. But if you know him you know how it is.
We watched all the other performers. Colored. Ate. Sat and watched. The kids did pretty well, even though it was long. And then the director decided she wants to bring all the other kids out onto the stage to dance the last part of the Proud Mary. And then have the end of the song be the entire cast dancing and then bowing. Fine, I don't care. We are just the talent, whatever, but I guess I am supposed to care because many parents were complaining to the director about this taking away the end of their song. It became a really petty 'art world shit' thing and I was glad to be out of there. The kids are 8. They kick ass. No matter what happens that is what people will remember. We will see what they come up with tomorrow. Someone did say to the director, "you know for these kids it is hard to sit and watch and keep interest all these hours. Do you think they could come in later tomorrow?" She said, "Yes, instead of 4, be here at 4:30, 4:45 at the latest." Great. I'm sure that will help a lot.

And so, it was right before this Melee that Mindy H. arrived at the theater with a cake in a box and a grin on her face, saying, "I've brought the party to you!" Read my super awesome cake. I think I have the most awesome friends on the planet.

She then sat with me. Took these pictures. Helped me download about the crazy stuff again. It was such a relief to have a normal un-involved mom nearby to shake my head at in a 'wtf?' kind of way. Thank you for thinking of me Mindy. So much.

THANK YOU MINDY!

Then (after a pep talk with Jeanne and with Chasey's mom) I flashed over to Irene's, where, all the kids were happy. Everyone was sane. I got to download some more. And I also got to eat

Thank you Family Wise. I meant what I said, and I said what I meant. I am so glad I got to see you on my birthday. And I'm not just saying that because you saved my bacon, AGAIN. I love you guys.

Irene and I thought it would be funny to take dueling pictures of ourselves for our blogs.

When I got to check my email tonight I got a nice message from K.R. who is giving me some kind of vacation this year that I have to book by May 10. I can't even process that right now. My mind is so blown!

PS Marina was a doll baby to me all day gushing love out to me and telling me how beautiful I am. DeeJay is super stoked because he won these raffles at school and got a new remote control car and a new ipod shuffle! I think my birthday was great all around.

Thank you to everyone who loves me and helps me and keeps me sane, all day, everyday!