Birthday Girl

Yesterday was my birthday. It has not failed to occur to me that the stress and worry I've been feeling over the state of the world has a lot to do with me getting older. I'm now 38 years old. Ouch.

I repeat, Ouch.

That's like, basically half my life over. Done. I don't even have a viable retirement plan. I haven't had kids yet. Menopause is looming in the distance (unless Armageddon comes first.) My gynecologist warned me last year... "ya better start soon." Thanks for the vote of confidence lady! And here I am a year later with nothing to show. I just hope when I go for my annual exam next week she doesn't play the music for final Jeopardy in the background.

Well at least I had a good birthday. We went up to Santa Barbara for the weekend. Stayed at a cool little Inn. Went to Solvang and Los Olivos. Tasted about a dozen wines. Which loosened us up so much we bought a bunch of wines we couldn't afford. Then we joined a wine club we had no business joining. Ate at a few slightly pricey but totally yummy restaurants. Went shopping on State Street in Santa Barbara. Spent money we should be paying bills with. Drove back late Sunday night saying how we really gotta stop that kind of thing and go on a budget. Ahhhhh. Old people like us need to get away once in a while.

I hardly thought about the corruption and evil plaguing our society. I was too busy indulging. Did you know that a good Moscato goes great with white chocolate? We ate dinner at this restaurant called the Palace Grill. Awesome. The stuffed filet mignon is to die for. And the breadpudding is heaven. You really can't beat the friendly service. They even passed out song sheets and everybody sang "What a Wonderful World" as the staff walked around raising a toast with all the guests. Totally goofy. But undeniably fun. I'd go there again in a heartbeat.

I also had another uplifting moment there. There were three guys at the table next to us. I overheard the last part of their conversation. Here's the paraphrased synopsis...

The long-haired blond was expounding, "I read on yahoo news that 2 people were killed in Iraq today. That's what they say in the headlines. But when you read the article you find out it's two Americans and 17 Iraqis. So it was really 19 people but we never count the Iraqis. And they weren't the bad Iraqis, they were the good guys on our side."
"So that's just how the news is man. They twist reality. Why are you making a big deal out it?" his buzzed cut friend replied.
"It is a big deal. I'm just saying the news is warped. It wasn't 2 people that died it was 19! That's my reality."

The waiter came over with their check. His friends basically blew him off but I wanted to yell out, AMEN BROTHER! It felt so good to know that there are people out there that recognize that humanity extends beyond our borders. Some of us can see that this war has not had only had the hundreds (I don't think we've hit 2000 yet) of casualties of American soldiers but also the thousands of Iraqi people who are trusting our government not to use them for oil and then throw them away like so much garbage. It's nice to know that other people out there are thinking for themselves.

We went to another bar/restaurant called the Brewhouse. No politics or religion there. Just a really loud (and awesome) band, a bunch of girls with no rhythm and a bunch of guys watching them dance. It was great. I like having fun. It's... well, it's FUN.

Maybe I will not stress over the country for a couple of days.