To Sum Up

Hi, it’s been couple of weeks. Here’s a list of what’s been going on with Angie & Co.

Cute William had a birthday. He’s three now and it’s made him three times cuter.

Zachary also had a birthday. He’s 16, and still very cute, with a healthy dose of teenage angst.

My nieces Josie (14) and Amalia (2) also had birthdays and my nephew Jake (11), and….. ME! It was my birthday on the 10th.

One might ask, when seeing all of the March birthdays in my family, what’s up with March? I wonder what was going on the previous May/June that made everyone feel so amorous.

My birthday was very nice. The girls at work took me to lunch, and then there was cake filled with chocolate mousse. Melody and I went to Outback Steakhouse for dinner and filled ourselves with steak, potato and the joy of living another year. I received lots of text messages and wall posts on facebook. Thank you all for remembering me!

The next day Melissa and I went to dinner, and then saw “A Tale of Two Cities” at the Hale Theater. It was very good. Two Cities is one of my favorite books.

Along with dinner and a show, Melissa also gave me bronchitis, not quite as fun. She earned 2 points for the evening, and then lost 1 for the disease, which leaves her with a score of 1 point. We’ll see how she does in the final jeopardy round.

My nephew Noah was baptized March 5th. Here’s a picture of their very good-looking family.

I spent some quality time at the DMV, registering the Taurus and renewing my driver’s license. Quality time. The state now wants several proofs of US citizenship and residence before renewing a license, even if you’ve had a valid license for more than 15 years. I suppose there is always the chance that I’ve been an illegal immigrant all along…except that there isn’t any chance of that at all. What nonsense.

I finished one of the best books I’ve read in a long time, “The Invisible Bridge” by Julie Orringer. It starts in 1937 with a Jewish boy named Andras Levi going to Paris to study architecture. He falls in love and goes through all the joy and pain and joy that that brings. And then World War II starts in Europe. He goes home to Hungary, and his family is caught up in all that the war brings. It’s beautifully written, really beautifully, and reading it was an experience all its own.

Reading that book made me think about WWII and all of its devastation. How did people keep from thinking that it wasn’t the absolute end of the world? And how did they come back from it? The human race is remarkably resilient.

And that makes me think about Japan. We’ve had a flood of phone calls at the COB this past week from people wanting to know if their missionaries are okay. They all are, and we honestly believe it’s a miracle.

I’ve been distracted these last few weeks with birthdays and time off work and other events, and am now refocusing my attention on some long-standing goals. Long-standing because I never seem to accomplish them, but there’s still hope, right? I am 41 now, old enough to take charge of myself. I’m going to plagiarize my dear friend Tiffany (I hope you don’t mind) because I love what she wrote the other day, “I'm going to start making decisions that will benefit Future Self instead of just satisfying Present Self. Present Self is driving me nuts, eating too much, and not being tidy. She's like the worst college roommate… Time to put Present Self in her place and start sucking up big time to Future Self. I heard she's awesome.” Isn’t that good? Words to live by.

I think that’s it. Oh wait, one more thing, thanks as always for stopping by. You are loved.