Afterglow

Good lord.  Who would have known that turning 50 would be such a crazy time.  It started out with almost 20 folks at Happy Hour on last Thursday evening.  Migrated to a quieter 6-person coffee on Friday morning.  An even more quiet and lovely 3-person dinner and 5-person movie ("The Iron Lady" which I loved).  And a 32-person bash on Saturday night hosted by our good friend Alan.  And concluded on Sunday with a 12-person brunch and a 25-person Pizza and Piano evening at our condominium.  I had phone calls, text messages, emails, "likes" on FB, and wall posts on FB (truly, about 150 of them!) -- from so many of you...and from England, South Africa, and Paris.  And I was able to have my very first, live phone call with a longtime reader of my site....the infamous Anne Marie in Philly.  She made me feel so good about turning 50!  The picture speaks for itself.  Cards, cards and more cards.  With sentiments.  And thoughts.  And reflections.  And memories.  Really good stuff.  Thanks to you all.  My friends.  I appreciated all of your attention so much.

I feel like Mrs. Rich Bitch right now with my state and federal tax returns plus our company's annual performance payout.  I've asked for it all in rolls of pennies.  It has already been nearly spent.  On things like Mason's teeth cleaning, a new home printer, and setting aside some for our annual trip to Provincetown, Massachusetts, this July for Bear Week. 

I'm heading to Seattle tomorrow for a day of helping out in yet another brand new class of flight attendants.  I help teach the Services Training day -- food, beverages, carts, how to pour drinks and be nice to people day.  It's always a lot of fun....but oh so tiring.  And the perception is always so strange -- turning into classroom training what I have spent 17 years of my life actually doing in flight.  Strange.

The month of March will return me to overnight trips at work.  I've been mainly doing turns...where I go out and right back home instead of staying overnight somewhere.  I haven't done an overnight away in months -- probably since last November or so.  That's one of the great things about my job -- the flexibility, the change, the variety.

February is truly one of my favorite times of year.  For more reasons that just my birthday.  I love the gentle edging up of temperatures -- we hit 62 yesterday.  The crocus are already up and blooming.  And the daffodils and tulips will follow shortly.  The pink of the flowering cherry trees has been around for about two weeks already.  I really dig our temperate climate without giant extremes of hot or cold.