42 is a strange birthday. The man at Safeway asked me if I was old enough to buy wine and it occurred to me that was I was old enough to buy wine 21 years ago.
Let that sink in for a minute.
Twenty-one years ago yesterday, that dick hole bouncer at Casey’s Cove watched me like a hawk until midnight and then didn’t even have the decency to buy me a beer.
Twenty-one years ago today my parents took me to Bern’s Steakhouse for dinner and I almost didn’t order a drink even though it was my 21st birthday because I was so hungover from what occurred between midnight and two am the night before.
I still won’t drink Southern Comfort.
Sure, I still get I.D.ed but I’ve got plenty of physical proof that I am old. I will spare you the gory details but suffice it to say that I’ve paid doctors to do things to me this year that I didn’t even know were things – things that if you told be about them 21 years ago I probably would have run out of the room screaming.
I also have mental verification of my age. I really like Tom Petty now. I never saw that coming. I can finally say that I have been to Europe. Oh! And I finally started eating asparagus this year, my mom was right. I was going to like it when I grew up. Weird.
Here is something else weird. I now sit on the Board of Directors for my Choral foundation. Don’t worry, Gabe and the kids bought me a P.A. for my birthday, so I can still rock out, but I am also very into the choral thing. I am very proud of how much our organization has grown and how much we do with youth choirs and the scholarships we give out. I also sit on the parents council since my daughter is singing in the Cantus choir. I didn’t force her to sing or anything! She likes it. This makes my heart all gushy. The other amazing thing is that this year Bob Chilcott is our composer-in-residence.
Bob. Freaking. Chilcott.
Most of you probably have no idea what I am talking about, but those of you who sing are totally jealous of me right now because I got to go to dinner with him and watch a World Cup game with him and he is as awesome in real life as he is at composing.
This is a really, really long way for me to go to say, that as a board member one of my main responsibilities is fundraising, and for my birthday I would be thrilled if you would either donate something to Choralis or ask your company if they need any year-end tax deductions.
Seriously, $10 or $10,000. Anything would be lovely. We’re not proud. We’ll take $5.
It has been an amazing birthday so far. I’ve gotten that P.A. and a pair of boots that are to die for. I have a lunch date and a dinner date so the only dishes I have to do today are the ones left from yesterday, I have had tons of birthday wishes on Facebook, and my kids are in Family Life Education classes this week so they always come home with hilarious stories about puberty and reproduction. (Yesterday they asked me to say “hairy crotch” out loud and then fell on the floor laughing when I complied.)
So to close, my birthday wishes are that you help me look good in front of my conductor and board chair and also that the Tampa Bay Buccaneers suck less in 2015.
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I just used the phrases “dick hole” and “composer-in-residence” in one post. I guess I haven’t really grown up that much at all.
