HAPPY Birthday, Joy!

Joy's book. 

It is my dear friend Joy's birthday today. She is artist, writer, shaman. She has one foot firmly planted on the Earth, and one on the side of Spirit. Last weekend we were at a Spirit School gathering and in a small group. There was a woman there who, for lack of a better description, was depressed; slumpy with a glaze to her eyes. As we were going around the circle, Joy spoke and said something like: 

When you are in a place of despair, trying to go to a place of joy seems impossible. So don't try. "Just ask yourself, What is the thing right above this feeling that I can go to? And just take that step. And then keep working your way step-by-step.

As Joy began talking, I looked over at Depressed Woman and I could see her physiology shifting. She sat up and paid attention. And she began to smile and get some life in her eyes. I said to Joy after the gathering, "That was quite the message you got," and she said, "Yeah, I knew someone needed to hear that." Yes, she did!

Joy is currently doing a message-a-day on her blog. Perhaps it's a message for you.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JOY!

HAPPY Birthday

One year I opened up my new calendar to find a count down to Bill Hutton's birthday written in January of that year. Classic.

He refers to his life as The Bill Hutton Show and will tell me about episodes. He starts with,"Today on The Bill Hutton Show...." My favourite from last year is the My Dog Got Skunked episode wherein his golden retriever gets sprayed at 2 a.m. in the face. After exhausting all sprays, shampoos, and potions he follows the advice of a friend--or Mr. Internet, I can't remember which-- and goes hunting for a specific kind of douche.  After going to a few stores, he finally found it at Walmart.

Yeah, it didn't work, either.

And I think his friend was just messing with him.

Then I found this photo & sent it to him of some random guy buying a douche at Walmart. Not as uncommon as you'd think.

Last Christmas he sent me an email: Gone But Not Forgotten . . . But Not Remembered Either. It was of his 2000 Christmas show from WKMZ, before he went to XM. So, so BRILLIANT. Here's a snippet.

I often sit with pen handy to jot down what he says because he's so funny. And we talk about everything and nothing; books and movies and stuff in general. He told me I should watch Archer. He described it as: "If James Bond were incompetent & got the job because of his mother." Still haven't watched it, but I loved his description.

He is sprinkled throughout my blog and has been a constant as I've navigated my way thru the last few years of change in my life; divorce, deaths, and moves. Not only one of the funniest people I know, but one of the kindest, too.  He'll prolly go to the gym today, where "It's just me and the old people and the MILFs." Hahahaha

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

You're the BEST, Jerry!

Artie's Birthday

We grew up in my family taking karate with Arthur Drago at the Front Royal Karate Club. Well. I took it for 2 years and dropped out. [insert laughter from Mum] Anyway, it was Artie's 70th birthday May 1st, so here are a few pix from his party.

Card I made for Artie. This is the logo for his school.

Inside of card. Pop-up!

Me, Artie, & Mum. I'm the only non-blackbelt is this trio.

I took several pix of Artie with chiro-sister; most with Artie looking like this:

But I finally got a cute 'n' cuddly one:

Mum's calligraphy is all over the dojo:

This was from one of Artie's students:

SO SWEET!

Chiro-sister comes up to me & says, "You have to go to the bathroom! The SIGN is still there!"

It's been there since we were teenagers! 30+ years.

Birthday Hug from Mama Drago, 93 years young!

HAPPY B-Day Mel!!!

Today is the birthday of friend-of-the-fam & Crossword Wiz, Melody.
 Here's a shot of the birthday cake that Mum made with its nuclear coloured garden & gargantuan sun.

Thanks for sending the pic, Mel!  Mum did the writing & the sun.  I did the flowers, but wasn't trusted to do the 3 lines together--also known as "grass."

And here is a shot of this morning's sunrise:

HAPPY B-Day, Mel!  May today be full of sunshine & good cheer.  And of course, MANY HAPPY RETURNS OF THE DAY!!!

So Cute

For my niece's 8th birthday, her teacher had her classmates write birthday letters to her. And my niece wrote her own:

Dera my self,
I am sowe happy it is my brithday!
my brithday list I want
a bribal and a DS and a DS
Game.

The "bribal" is a bridle as in horse, not bridal as in white wedding.

If you were writing a letter to yourself, what would you say? Dear Myself . . . .

And can I just say?

You may have noticed that I didn't post yesterday. I was on the road back home from my quickie-visit to Brother D's. Here's the b-day card I gave him:

This was actually a card I got by mistake. It must have belonged to the person ahead of me in line, and the cashier gave it to me instead. In any case, it did not go to waste! It got the laugh I was looking for. On the inside I thanked him for letting me & SIL celebrate his b-day with Kathy Griffin.

This is the wrapping for his gift. Hot Wheels paper! I orginally got this from XM Radio Guy & we've passed it back 'n' forth a coupla times. Brother D said, "Oooooh...Hot Wheels!" And the gift inside:

Original 1992 Simpson Halloween masks with all your favourite characters! And now for something completely different:

Can I just say...OMG, she is hysterical! She starts off with Where are my gays? As you know from the previous post, Brother D sent me & SIL with his friend Gay Dan--who was so much fun! [Side note here: I was driving SIL & Gay Dan to their cars after the show & SIL was giving me directions. She said, "Go straight at this light." Gay Dan said, "Never!" He said it right before I was going to say, "Except for Dan." Hahahahaha] OK, so back to Kathy: it started with clips from movies, shows, specials, interviews, etc. She was in Pulp Fiction? Really? And then she came out waving both hands to great applause.

Watching her is like having a conversation with her. Did you see [fill-in-the-blank TV show]? And then she gives her quirky, irreverant observations. She talks about her box-of-wine mother, her experiences at the Emmy's, encounters with celebrities, opinions on current events. It was all v. entertaining. So here's the thing--and an unexpected gift of insight from a night with Kathy. She would do a quickie imitation of Sarah Palin (spot on!), and then she'd say, "I've got lots on Sarah later. Don't worry, I'll get to her." She said that a coupla times. She told this hysterical story of sharing a dressing room with Pamela Anderson and then: that was the end of the show. And SIL said in the car, "She never got to Sarah Palin." And here's the thing: she didn't talk about a lot of things, but she didn't put those things on our radar. She didn't give us the idea that she'd be talking about Celine Dion or American Idol. And then not do it. So even tho it was an AWESOME performance, it felt like there was something missing. If she'd never said more on Sarah Palin later, we'd not have been waiting for it. Something to think about when we make promises or suggestions....

HAPPY B-DAY, Dr. Seuss

I know you're dead
but if you weren't
I'd give you cake
that wasn't burnt.

I'd sing for you
and maybe dance
and read your books
at every chance.

Your cat and ham
Your JOY and rhymes
have given us such
HAPPY times.

So HAPPY Birthday,
to you now.
Dr. Seuss,
we take a bow.

Today I'm wearing my Cat-in-the-Hat socks for Dr. Seuss. Last night XM Radio Guy celebrated his b-day by giving away his books & some pens as his cheap give-away. Great stuff. I learned to read with The Cat in the Hat, one of my all-time favourite books. He was approached by a textbook company to write a primer, but after he wrote it, they rejected it as inappropriate. So then he went on to fame and fortune. Yay, us!

P.S. THANKS, Mum for reading to me for hours and hours the same books over and over. You're the BEST!

Tiddley Pum

Even tho this is my blog, I try to leave personal things and family members out since they don't ask to be in here. I'm especially careful about posting photos of children that aren't mine, and I only post ones that are vague where you couldn't pick them out in a line-up. And I have a photographer friend who said if you photograph a person from the back, you don't need a release. She takes pictures for istock, so it must be true!

Anyway, it's my niece's b-day this weekend, and this cute Winnie-the-Pooh outfit has been through the fam. It was a bit chilly that day and when my brother was looking for M's coat, Mum handed him this. Oh, great, Mum. Something easy to get her in and out of, said my brother. M's got quite the vocab and is terribly bright. On the other hand, I have video of her blowing spit-bubbles on my mother's window at Xmas time. Hilarious. If I get permission, perhaps I'll share it sometime. She's clutching on to what I would call her blankie, except she calls it "my tie dye." It goes everywhere with her. So sweet.

Airport Drama-o-rama

Well. I went to the airport to pick up Mum. I got there in plenty of time. Puh-lenty. When I went in, it said on the screen by International Arrivals that the flight was delayed. By 3 hours. So I immediately turned lemons into lemonade and decided it was an opportunity to listen to the WONDERFUL Dave Dobson tapes that John Morgan has lent me. I went to the car and listened to one for a half hour or so (and I'm listening to Dave, so how much time has really gone by??? That will be funny to a coupla Dobsonians reading this). Anyway, so the tape stopped. Hmmm... that's odd. I wonder if I drained the battery. Why, yes, I did. How would you react? Think about it as I tell you what I did next:

I Reikied the battery for about 40 minutes (WTH, I had time to kill).
I chanted the Gayatri mantra (all-purpose Vedic chant). Click here for a v. cute version.
I visualized myself celebrating and saying, "THANK YOU!" because the car started.
Then I muscle-checked when the whole process was complete and turned the ignition... and this part may surprise you...

...or perhaps not. The car did not start. Can you believe that? But just when I had tried to start it, a man was walking by, so I asked him if he had jumper cables. He did. AND his car was right across in front of mine. AND he just happened to be a mechanic. It would be so cool if I could say my car started right then, but alas, no! The cables were too skinny and didn't get enough juice to the battery. Another guy walked by and Mechanic Guy asked him if he had jumper cables. He did. My car started. I celebrated just as I had imagined. THANK YOU!!! :-)

I knew it was all taken care of, I just had the details of *how* a bit fuzzy.

Now some of you, in your smug little Newtonian Clock Universe, will think, "Who Reiki's a car battery?" Really, why didn't I just go look for help in the first place? Well. And this is my clean-little-secret: I Reiki everything. Now you know. Because I live in an Einsteinian Energetic Universe; everything is energy and thoughts & intentions direct that energy. AND it has worked in the past. OK, not with a car battery, but it's worked with my computer and other situations. AND doing Reiki helps me get grounded in stressful situations. Chanting Gayatri makes me feel calm & centered. AND when you feel better, you do better. AND instead of wandering around looking for help, it came to me. I only asked one person. Plus, and you may interpret this as the REAL reason: it was POURING down rain, and I didn't want to get out of the car. Until it stopped. It didn't. And I asked myself, "What can I do sitting in the dark on a rainy night in my car with nothing else to do but wait for the rain to stop?" Pray. Meditate. Reiki. Always a good thing to do, and rushing around as I had for the past 2 days, had not taken time to do that. So, there you have it.

PART 2:
I had an hour to recharge the battery and listen to Dave. (Note to self: Blog post on Dave). Then I went into the airport and waited for Mum. Have you ever seen that movie, Love, Actually? With Hugh Grant, Emma Thompson. I forget what it's about because it's the opening of the movie that I LOVE. They filmed regular people at an airport for 2 weeks meeting friends & family off the plane. It's so BEAUTIFUL to watch. And I got the live version of it as I watched people come out of customs. There were 2 little boys who ran up to their grandfather. Papita! Papita! And happy tears all around. A British gal with her children meeting her sister. Very proper and so sweet. An Indian family greeting their father-brother-uncle. It made my heart *smile* to watch all this as I'm waiting for my own mother.

And then my phone rang. It was Mum. "Where are you?" she said.
"I'm at the airport. Where are you?"
HOME. Her plane was NOT delayed and she had sat in the airport for 3 hours while I sat in the parking lot. She finally got a taxi home. In the rain. With a driver who didn't speak English. D'OH!!! (Note to self: Oh, never mind! Too many notes!) So there you have it.

WELCOME HOME, Mum! Sorry your daughter is such a twit!

Mum on her last B-day.

This is our version of Easy-Lazy Trifle (no one wants to bake in August!) :
Store-bought angel food cake, slice around to make 2 layers. Add Byrd's frozen strawberries to bottom layer (thawed, of course). Put on top layer of cake, add more strawberries to the top. Slather with whipped cream (the REAL stuff, not that spray crap-in-a-can). If you're feeling extra-inspired, you can do the Byrd's custard on top of the strawberries before the whipped cream. The center of the cake just fits a Catholic candle (Mother Mary). :-)