Thoughts about another birthday

Yup. Today is the day! Rather than another year down, or past, I see it as one year closer to the ‘next big thing’. You see, my life has sorta been one of unforeseen adventures - although I wasn’t always able to recognize them as such at the time.

Looking back, however, they’ve been really swell, and I know there’s more to come.

Yes, that’s me. Coral Gables, Florida. October 1953. I still have that satin quilt. When I’m feeling old, I get it out and roll around on it. Not really, but perhaps I should.

I don’t know about you, but birthdays are usually a mixed bag of emotions as we get further past 50. On one hand, I’m damn grateful to still be here. Things could’ve gone differently with the cancer, and they still may. You start thinking about the whole ‘mortality’ business, and it can be a little jarring at times.

You can wonder about the future. Watching my 93-year-old Mom struggle with age, you catch yourself thinking that old age ain’t all it’s cracked up to be.

But as much as I grouse about things, I am an optimist deep down inside. That optimism is a little deeper and harder to reach right now. I don’t know about you, but I’ve had more than enough of this horrendous campaign season.

But out riding my bicycle this morning, with a crisp, clear blue Nevada sky, the mountains dusted with a bit of snow - a promise of beautiful ski days to come - you can’t help but be inspired and renewed. It helps to know that whatever the outcome of this election, the sun will come up again, and the birds will chirp.

The other thing that I know, is that a lot of neat people thought of me kindly today. Wow. How cool is that? Facebook friends are actually friends - Thanks, Bob, Tabor, Thom, Sharlet, Lori, Greg, Judy, Casey, Charles, Susan, Peg and Simon (Long time no hear from you, Buddy) … I hope I didn’t forget anybody.

I also got a rousing chorus of ‘Happy Birthday’ over the phone from my kids in the Bay Area, and best wishes in Voice Mail from Shelly and Suggi, also my cycling buddy, Dick. My sister-in-law checked in from her winter home in Florida yesterday to wish me a happy one.

Why not embrace the technology that gives so many smiles?

Mr. Maven asked me what I wanted for this birthday, and I just don’t need any more stuff really. Experiences are what I crave these days, so I went for some cooking classes at Jennifer Bushman’s Nothing To It culinary school, deli and retail establishment. I’d thought about doing this before but could never find a ‘Round To-it’ that got me into Nothing To It. LOL.

Last night was Moroccan. Oooooooh. It was very good indeed. There were two groups there. The one which I expected: ladies looking for a reason to get out of the house.  A few too many strands of pearls wound a bit too tightly. Somehow, I fell right into the other group, the right group - the real foodies. The ones that were there to get their hands all messy and have their notions challenged.

I highly recommend it.

But this is what makes life a grand adventure. Throwing yourself out there and seeing what happens.

Finally, tonight didn’t exactly go as planned. Mr. Maven wanted to take me out for a kind of romantic supper at a swank place. I had cousins show up from Little Rock, Arkansas for the day.

It turned out to be a reservation for five at a local upscale Asian place. It was fun watching my cousins, Dean and Virginia, try and get their heads wrapped around the idea of sushi - they’d never had it or Japanese food before. This was probably the first and last time, but they were troopers about it. They’d had a big lunch at Burger King with my mother. That’s her favorite place, too.

Sigh. We had a nice evening anyhow, ended it early dropping Mom back at ‘the home’, then we came home and watched a movie.

I count that as a successful birthday by any measure.

What would I still ask for, if I had some wishes left?

Just one thing.

A resounding, fist pumping victory for each and Democrat/Liberal/Progressive around the country - especially Harry Reid. Obama’s election was only the first skirmish in a protracted battle for our democracy. We need to rally once again.

I hope I’m not over-reaching.

-maven

Monday Musings: May 10, 2010

Today is my mother’s birthday. She’s 93 years old. That’s damned old by anybody’s standards. She still drives around town, does her own ‘thing’, and can’t go 15 minutes without informing all that she won’t live to see another week, not to mention another year.

“Momma lived to be 96, but I don’t think I’m going to get there.”

While having the big whipped cream covered waffle at Heide’s restaurant in southwest Reno, yesterday - Mother’s Day - (more about Heide’s later) she regaled us again with stories of back in the day. Actually, some of them are pretty good.

On going to school for the first time: “the local school teacher used to drive by our gate with her horse and buggy. I couldn’t have been more than about four, and would run out and wave and tell her hello. She would stop and talk. Finally, one day, she asked Momma if I could go to school with her, and Momma told her sure. It was about a month later when the school board found out and said I was too young to be in school. They called us in. The school teacher gave me a book to read in front of them. They never said any more, and I continued in school.”

This is Mom’s explanation for my supposdedly being able to ‘read’ at age two. Highly unlikely, but it entertaining.

On having black friends: “we only had a few black kids in school, and they had to sit in the back of the room, in the corner. They never said anything, and the teacher never asked them anything. I felt sorry for them.”  … (seque to Miami, Florida in the 1950’s when I was little) … “Then there was that day I was sitting in our kitchen having coffee with that black woman who came in to do the ironing. That neighbor whose husband was in the Klan, let’s herself in the back door with a fresh pie in her hands. She looked at me and the black woman, and without saying a word, turned and went out the door and never came back.”

My mother may have been raised in Kansas, but never, ever had time or patience for racism or bigotry. Her worldview, aside from that, is pretty limited - in large part from being raised in the worst of the Dust Bowl during the Great Depression. She never, ever got past it. Having a job, money, and eating whatever was in front of you, was more important than anything else - including any possible joy.

It’s a bleak worldview for the most part, but it’s got her this far. And, remember, she won’t last another week. She still can’t imagine what makes her feel so tired and achey these days. She thinks it has to be fibro-myalgia. I tell her it’s possibly “93-myalgia”.

She says I’m not funny.

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Happy Birthday to me.

Way back in the day, like about age 30, I used to wonder what I’d think or feel like when I reached the advanced ages. Like 40. Then it was, yikes, 50.

Now it’s (gasp!) 56!

I genuinely qualify for membership in AARP. I really do get senior discounts now, although not for skiing which is a drag. Mr. Maven skis for free.

I never could have anticipated that I’d really be ‘Okay’ being this age, but I really am.

In fact, I can’t imagine being anything different.

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