the purple chai
now :: then :: me :: them

a fifty-something under-tall half-deaf school librarian in the jersey suburbs with two grown kids and time on her hands

Libraries will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no libraries.


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50 - It's a Magic Number

01-12-03

3:35 am

***I am 50 years old!***

Here's an odd custom we have in my family: on your birthday, someone tells the story of the day (or night) when you were born. Every year, the same story. (�It was snowing all night!� �I was in labor for 37 hours!�) Usually, it�s your mother who tells the story, with everyone else who was there chiming in. This is, of course, by first birthday without my mother, Shirl. So I�ll think about it, and tell the story next year.

I was wondering what I�d write about today. 50 things I�m grateful for? I tried that gratitude journal thing that Oprah was pushing while back, and I couldn�t think of three things every day I was grateful for.

50 years ago the world was very different, and I spent a lot of childhood imagination wondering what my grown-up life would be like. So, in no particular order,

50 Things That Make Me Happy

  1. I didn�t die or turn into a cabbage when they took the brain tumor out.
  2. My two grown daughters are decent and good human beings.
  3. Shirl�s pain and suffering are all over.
  4. I enjoy doing the work I do.
  5. My house is warm.
  6. Keeping this diary is very satisfying.
  7. My Husband is a good guy who is dripping with integrity, which is an important thing to me. He is very funny, which is also important to me.
  8. Nobody usually cares if I ever � never � cook or clean.
  9. I got myself an electric stapler. It is a very neat little gadget.
  10. I saw the new Harry Potter movie last week and loved it.
  11. I have every episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation on videotape.
  12. It isn�t snowing today.
  13. Hostess Orange Cupcakes
  14. My Cousin is giving me a plane ticket for my birthday to anywhere in the country I want to go, so this summer I�m going to Colorado to see her.
  15. I�m getting my paralyzed eyelid fixed again � finally, I hope � next month.
  16. Writing again.
  17. I didn�t have to drive to Washington DC this week, and put YoungerDaughter on the train instead.
  18. OlderDaughter and I are having lunch with Sister and Niece today.
  19. Having Jack as my father makes me happy.
  20. Having had Sam as my Grandpa makes me blessed.
  21. YoungerDaughter�s laugh delights me and makes me laugh, and always has.
  22. I saw the Beatles on TV the first time they were on Ed Sullivan.
  23. I�m amused that I have a straw dispenser on my kitchen table, like at a soda fountain.
  24. Things that didn�t exist when I was a kid but do now, such as color TV
  25. Computers
  26. The Internet, and the way you can get almost any information as soon as you think of needing it
  27. Microwave ovens
  28. VCRs
  29. microfleece socks.
  30. DISNEYWORLD the best place on earth, makes me happy, and meeting the characters and riding "it�s a small world", every time.
  31. I have about 15 Mickey Mice � stuffed or statues.
  32. The black and white Mickey Mice are especially cool.
  33. I have a picture on my wall of OlderDaughter with Bill Clinton
  34. I have a picture on my wall of YoungerDaughter in a wedding gown, standing in front of a church with a boy in a tuxedo. They took it to be a prop in a school play, but we put it on the wall like a real wedding picture.(The boy�s father has it on his desk at work, too. He�s the minister of the church.)
  35. I always used to think that I wasn�t very social or good at making friends. But my few very wonderful friends make me very happy. They are Chum
  36. Colleague
  37. OldFriend
  38. E
  39. Sister
  40. Cousin
  41. Gadgets of almost any kind, from really good mechanical pencils to digital cameras, amuse me and make me happy.
  42. It�s good to be deaf in only one ear.
  43. I love my car, an ugly little boxy five year old Geo Tracker.
  44. I have two cuddly and affectionate (yet often annoying, oh well) cats.
  45. I like to watch light, romantic movies, like Murphy�s Romance or Sleepless in Seattle .
  46. Patrick Stewart, the actor (from Star Trek, Shakespeare, etc.) makes me oh so happy.
  47. I could eat macaroni and cheese at every meal every day of my life.
  48. Starbuck�s vanilla latte.
  49. I like to wear hats, especially baseball caps or anything with earflaps. When I wear these, E says, to my delight, that I look like �a schmuck with earlaps.�
  50. The tattoo, and purple. As the poem says,

When I am an old woman I shall wear purple
With a red hat which doesn't go, and doesn't suit me.
And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves
And satin sandals, and say we've no money for butter.
I shall sit down on the pavement when I'm tired
And gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells
And run my stick along the public railings
And make up for the sobriety of my youth.
I shall go out in my slippers in the rain
And pick flowers in other people's gardens
And learn to spit.

Made it.

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last :: next

Sweet Sorrow - 06.12.2007
So ... - 12.19.2006
Christmastime Is Near - 12.18.2006
Fifteen Years - 12.17.2006
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