One to grow on

Today is my birthday. It's none of your business how old I am.

Suffice it to say that I am old enough that I have almost as many doctors as close friends. My hair has enough grey in it that Locks of Love probably wouldn't take it as a donation. I've lived in two cities since I was in high school...and just had a reunion that was for more years than the age I was when I graduated.

I'm a multiple of the age I was when I had my bat mitzvah. Haley's comet came around when I was in middle school. My first concert was  Michael Jackson's Victory Tour.

I remember commercials for Freedom Rock, and had the cassettes. Pan-Am and Eastern Airlines were part of my childhood. I wanted to be a Solid Gold Dancer SO badly.

I wore neon and ruffled bobby socks and scrunched crew socks and pegged my jeans. I listened to records before they were ironic, remember when beta and vhs and laser discs came out. I spent hours picking out what to rent at the video store.

My mom sent me out to play and told me to come back when it got dark or I got hungry. We used to roam the neighborhood in packs, all the kids hanging out together, wandering the woods behind our first house, walking miles to friends homes from our second.

 My first cell phone was just for emergencies and lived in the glove compartment of my car that was only nine years younger than myself.

I was present when Al Gore, Jr. was announced as Bill Clinton's running mate, both times. I was in elementary school when the Challenger exploded, was well out of college when the World Trade Center and Pentagon were attacked.

I had key skates, remember learning computer codes before html, and took videos on cameras that weighed nearly as much as I did at the time.

I have spent time in Israel, Denmark, England, France and Italy. I've done costume design, supported an Oscar Nominated screenwriter, worked at one of the world's most famous universities (and for their largest employees' union), walked an 1/2 marathon, been stepped on by a donkey in the Negev Desert, worked for social justice in the US and Burma, spent 3.5 hours in a holding cell for hosting a really great party, was the call screener for a late-night love talk radio show, introduced myself to Don Cheadle in the middle of Central Park, hitchhiked with strangers in Tel Aviv--twice, and have had countless adventures with friends and on my own.

I love the life I've had to date and look forward to the chaos and calm that lies ahead.