Welcome To The World Baby Girl

That's what I imagine my mom and dad said 32 years ago. Was it am or pm, Mother of Us All?  I can't remember....I was kind of tired, what with all the plucking me from the womb. Don't ask her to show you, but she has the scar to prove it. A scar of which I was and am reminded of when I do something particularly frustrating. "I had a C-section for you!" I love the story of my parents the night I was born.  I hope I remember it correctly...if I didn't, don't disillusion me now. After all, it's my birthday. Thanks in advance.

My Dad works for a railroad about 10 minutes from the house. Legend has it that when my mom went into labor, she called his work and once he was on the phone she told him "Don't rush but come home as soon as you can". Of course he rushes home and runs into the house to find my precious Mother of Us All in the tub shaving her legs. (Sorry mom). My father was dumbfounded. My mother's reasoning? She was having a GIRL and she was not having her with hairy legs. And I wonder why I go through razors so quickly...

Things I have learned since then:
1. It's kind of cool having a younger brother with a birthday only 5 days different from mine.
2. It kind of sucked having a younger brother with a birthday only 5 days different from mine when I was little. Imagine what it was like for my parents...if you need a picture, please note the enormous can of Maxwell House coffee in the picture at the beginning of this post.
3. Growing up within walking distance of one set of grandparents and a very short car ride from the other set was the best way I could have grown up.
4. Baseball bats and younger brothers with poor spatial skills will result in someone sporting a black eye.
5. Picking up what seemed like hundreds of cigarette butts from the first set of grandparents driveway and being paid a dollar is a priceless lesson in what I will do for money.
6. Disney songs are best sung at the top of your lungs while walking in the sun with a red-headed best friend.
7. Water and I were enemies, but may yet be friends.
8. Kitchen floors will catch fire if the circumstances are right.
9. Parents who pay for 9 years of private voice lessons and never expected me to be someone who I'm not, i.e., a Tony award winner that can pay them back for 9 years of private voice lessons, were and are crucial to my sense of self-worth.
10. Friends made the first day of undergrad can be the ones who will literally and figuratively save my life, even now.
11. Following my dreams has ended up being a very, very expensive endeavor...but I'm glad I did it anyway.
12. I heart ears. Heart them.
13. Moving halfway across the country with only the contents of my car was the scariest moment ever, and my family never stopped believing in me. They're good like that.
14. Living somewhere that is 80+ degrees in March is pretty freaking rad. Sorry Yankeeland-ers...it just is.
15. Convincing children to play listening games all day long is a surprisingly satisfying job. Even better, though, is having the honor of helping them hear their parents better, more clearly or maybe at all for the first time. Seeing their little eyes light up is an amazing thing.
16. Meeting a man who blows my expectations out of the water has been a very good thing. He's reinforcing a lot of things I've been told over the years about what a relationship should look like but have never seen in my own significant other until now. I thought everyone was making it up. If you've seen the Gilmore Girls episode when Lane comes back from her honeymoon, you get my overall theory. Other people seem amazingly happy but I couldn't quite get there. Maybe I just wasn't a good enough actress...ironic since my undergrad is in theater. Luckily I was totally wrong and DH has proven that. Sigh...he's just dreamy. Oh, sorry, did I just digress?

Thank you to every single blessed one of you who has influenced me, who has put up with me, who love me, who support me, who listen to me ramble about the same things over and over, who has helped direct me, who has stopped me out of love and said "what the heck are you thinking?!?!?". Thank you to my parents, my brothers, my aunts, uncles and cousins, my person, my DH, my unofficial family that started as friends, both new and old.

Overall I think I'm a pretty great woman after 31 years! Sorry, is that conceited?  Ah, you know what? It's my birthday, so I'm allowed to think great things about myself today.