This is a birthday post on the day of my own birthday to give thanks to all the family and friends who have filled my year with love, support, laughter and fun times.
The timing of my birthday has always made me a little nostalgic: Yet another summer has concluded and winter - and the end of the year - will be quickly approaching. I try to cram in as many fun experiences as I can during the freeing warm weather, and it has been another resoundingly successful summer:
- Kicked off the summer with a fantastic Montreal eating trip;
- Lost myself in the ballet, Onegin, which was the most beautiful one I've ever seen;
- Organized and led a taco crawl in Sunset Park;
- Saw a surprisingly good production of The Mikado, a Gillbert & Sullivan musical opera;
- Visited my brother and sister-in-law in Boston, and reunited with my oldest friend on earth;
- Supported friends and attended their going-away and birthday (and impromptu cheese) parties;
- Went on an awesome road trip with old friends and new;
- Volunteered for worthy causes;
- Went on a July 4th hike in the Appalachian Mountains, with a dip in a lake, a hayride and a BBQ in the woods afterwards;
- Saw Battle of Algiers for the first time in the theater;
- Experienced very cool (and very loud!) stock car racing for the first time in eastern Long Island;
- Over-ate on a LES/Jewish food tour;
- Attended an H.P. Lovecraft festival and experienced a radio play for the first time;
- Reveled in the special Monet exhibit at the New York Botanical Garden and captured amazing photos;
- Tagged along on lots of beer tastings for friends' research purposes;
- Managed to build up enough strength and endurance to run 10.5 miles;
- Saw the Cirque du Soleil show, Zarkana, in the very cool Radio City Music Hall venue;
- Had some really memorable dates and some hilariously awful ones;
- Got up at 3:30 a.m. to wait on line for Shakespeare in the Park tickets... and discovered that I love Settlers of Catan when I was forced to play it by friends while we waited eight hours for tickets to Into the Woods;
- Perfected batches of bourbon and brandy cherries;
- Organized and led a Red Hook ballpark food tour;
- Tried to see Back to the Future on a Hudson River pier with a group of friends but the screen deflated, so instead, hosted an impromptu pizza party at my apartment and watched the movie there;
- Cheered at pig races, petted award-winning sheep and ate lots of fried foods at the Dutchess County Fair upstate;
- Relaxed and wave-jumped at Long Beach with friends;
- Whiled away the afternoon in a hammock at a private beach near Northport, Long Island;
- Explored Governor's Island and had beers on the lawn with an amazing view of the Statue of Liberty and a Mark di Suvero large-scale steel beam art installation;
- Girls' night bowling;
- Toured very cool artists' work colonies such as The Invisible Dog as part of an open studio project in Brooklyn;
- Went on a fun business trip in Los Angeles and connected on a deeper level with clients and colleagues;
- Attended a meditation retreat and dharma talks by a respected lama;
- Stared in wonderment at The Joshua Light Show, a psychedelic music and light show with a good Brazilian band, Forro in the Dark;
- Sunned with friends at my building's amazing 12,000 sq. ft. deck, and swam and hot-tubbed;
- Made countless craft cocktails for friends I invited over; and
- Had countless drinks/coffees and shared countless meals and confidences with old friends and new.
Whew! What a busy three months!
Although I'm inclined to be melancholy at this time of the year, I remind myself that I have much to look forward to beginning in the autumn: Spanish/Flamenco guitar classes, apple picking and wine tasting, murder mystery theater, hike and whiskey tasting combo, paintball adventures, film festivals, salsa classes, Chaos Theory and other science lectures, Sleepy Hollow Halloween events, etc. etc. etc.
I am so fortunate to have the people I have in my life to share these times with. I seem to have accumulated a LOT of good karma; I was floored by the number of well wishes I received today. It's been a great birthday year, and I am sure that life will only get sweeter if I continue to be the kind, compassionate, interesting and fun person I am today.
Thirty-four, with a ROAR !!!!!
And thanks to all the friends who have celebrated with me over my five-day birthday extravaganza. I totally milked it this year; thank you for indulging me. I LOVED being able to see every one of you and let you know how important you are to me. Thank you, thank you and thank you.
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