virtual birthday party!

Hey, check out the wonderful birthday cartoon that my friend Kate created for me. And be sure to browse the rest of Kate's site to see her other very cool cartoons. Kate is Parki's sister...what an talented family, geez.

You're all invited to my Virtual Birthday Party on the Electric Penguin boards. Please do post something so I know you came by. :-) The party will run until this Sunday (my birthday's on Friday). No pets, please.

The Oscar Poll results are listed at the bottom of today's Blatherings, for those interested.





Today's photos were all taken on the weekend during our brunch with Parki, Alison, JeffL and Kye.

I asked JeffL (who turned 40 a few years ago) if he encountered any sudden burst of wisdom upon turning 40. He laughed at me, of course, but then said that one thing he did start thinking about around that time was life goal limitations. Of acknowledging things that he would never be able to do.

That's so depressing, I told him, meanwhile thinking 'What the hell kind of thing is that to say to me just before I turn 40, geez???'





But as we kept talking, I realized that what he said made sense, and that he was talking about a Good thing, not a Depressing thing.

When you're much younger, you have the whole world ahead of you. You know you can be pretty much anything you want. You have a zillion choices ahead of you, and each path will lead you to an entirely different life. That's exhilarating and wonderful and as it should be.

As you get older, however, your choices narrow. They have to; it's unrealistic and unhealthy to want to keep ALL choices open ALL the time. Yet there are people who are pretty obvious in their desperation to cling to the "I want to keep all my options open" philosophy far too long.





I know now that I will never be a concert hall pianist, though I did harbour secret dreams of being one (among many other childhood dreams) when I was little. Or an astronaut. Or a professional candy maker. (Ok, so maybe I never wanted to be a professional candy maker, but wouldn't that be a cool profession? You know, the person who gets to invent all the different types of chocolate bars and interesting types of candy or maybe I'll just shut up about that now)

But as JeffL pointed out me, this is actually a good thing. Having those avenues closed to me frees me up to focus on what I can pursue, takes some of the pressure off. I know myself far better than I did ten or twenty years ago. I have a much better grasp of what I want and don't want out of my life, and how I want to spend my time.

And the happy choices I have made still keep me pretty busy. :-)

If you're 40 or over and would be willing to share a life wisdom or two, feel free to post in Blatherchat or e-mail me.

Oscar Poll Results

Feel free to correct me, but here are my totals for the Oscar Poll. Number of correct predictions:

Sherman: 11
Alisa: 12
Shai: 9
JohnO: 9
Dave Henry: 10
Paul Stockton: 12
Scott Snyder: 11
Amanda: 12
Allison: 13
Chris: 0 :-)

FIRST PLACE: Allison
SECOND PLACE: Alisa, Paul, Amanda
THIRD PLACE: Sherman, Scott

Woohoo, lots of winners! I'll be sending Inkspot pens out to all of you (to Paul & Sherman: could you please send me your snailmail addresses?) I'll also be posting silly poems for all of you on Blatherings over the next while (will also send by e-mail).

If I've miscounted anywhere and you feel you've been ripped off, please do let me know.

Congratulations, everyone!

Here's the poem for Allison:

A SILLY POEM FOR ALLISON
By Debbie Ridpath Ohi
Mar. 27, 2002

Of the filk group Urban Tapestry
she's troublemaker of us three
She hates to have her picture taken
or at least by me.

THE END

Is that art, or what?

And no, I never did harbour aspirations of being a world-famous poet when I was a kid. :-)

---

Today's Blatherpics:

	This is a vinyl record that Alison had with her. She was wondering whether any of us had an easy way to transfer vinyl records onto CD. Sadly, none of us own turntables anymore.
	The back of the Kiddie A-Gogo album cover.
	Allison, Parki, JeffL, and Jeff in front of Curiosity restaurant this past weekend.
	Young Kye, who slept throughout our entire brunch. He is wearing a cap and sweater knit for him by Ginny (Jeff's mom).
	My birthday present from Alison & Jeff. Note the cool Japanese-theme wrapping paper! I'm especially intrigued by the "prune gummies"; I might have to do a special Blathering just on that when I work up the nerve to try them. :-)