What's With May?

For such a short month, February has lots of birthdays.  And what's the deal with all this May hankey pankey?  It really must be the lusty month of May! 

It starts on the 2nd with my former brother-in-law's birthday, my aunt on the 3rd, moi on the 4th, my dear, dear friend on the 5th, my professor/mentor from university on the 6th, a good friend on the 9th.  Today, the 10th, would have been my father's 89th birthday.  As my sister said this morning, where did the time go?  He has been gone for 24 years--hard to believe.  I think he would have been thrilled with some of how my life turned out--all of the travel we have been able to do.  But I also know that our relationship probably wouldn't have gotten any easier for either of us; we weren't very good at understanding where each other was coming from.

But back to February: The husband's grandmother on the 14th (very appropriate as she was a  very sweet woman), our very own KT on the 16th (and how did we get to be the parents of a 30-something child????), JLO's mother-in-law on the 19th.  Then it slows down.  My mother would also have turned 89, on the 23rd, but she's been gone since I was 11 so there's not as much emotional resonance there.  (My birth family--as opposed to the family the husband and I created--had all 4 birthdays between 22 January and 23 February.  The only bummer were the forced joint birthday parties my sister and I had.  Don't know if she agrees, but I think that's unfair unless you're a twin.  Everyone needs to feel special and being fussed over on one's birthday should be a given.) 

Sorry if I've forgotten anyone.

When the girls were growing up, we would make a big deal over their birthdays but not so much for the husband or myself.  It was especially difficult being the traditional mom in a traditional family--it's pretty depressing to have to bake your own birthday cake, so it just became a nonevent.  Now that we are getting older, I am much more into making our birthdays a big deal--every one we can celebrate is a milestone.  Hey--I've already outlived my mother by 16 years.  If you average the ages of both parents' deaths, I've passed that too.  For me, every added year IS a milestone.  I am thinking that for my 60th birthday I'm going to Disneyworld.

I had a lovely long talk today with a friend I thought was drifting away.  We have always understood each other incredibly well and share the capacity for joyful, uncontrolled hysteria--usually for reasons that no one else can find.  It was a weight on my heart, thinking that we had lost our way, but it seems it was more a misunderstanding on my part.  I am glad that I called and discovered how wrong I was.

Poor KT had a fender bender on her way to work today.  Bad enough that she is up at 4AM each day and leaves the house by 5.  Fortunately it was minor and she is fine.  Cars can be fixed...  The husband is back at work after an unexpected day off yesterday when a transformer blew and the building was without power for the rest of the day.  Should I be waiting for the next (last?) shoe to drop?  Don't these things come in a series of 3?

This afternoon--baby towels!