October 3: Senior Citizen

(well, in some locations, 55 is a senior! We could have saved $2.50 at the Gold Fever! exhibit if we'd waited till today.)

Vince called, and asked how it felt to be 22. Nice boy, think I'll keep him. Niki also sent e-greetings.

Bernadette sent some virtual gifts. I'd wondered how that worked, but it's kind of fun. Especially when the good thing is being remembered. Roni gave me the sunhat, which I actually used last week. It doesn't look as silly as I thought it would. Monica sent a shirt she got in Portugal that's a lovely shade of blue. (It's the same shade as my Boeing sweatshirt that I, argh, splashed with bleach.)

I finally saw our new associate pastor, who is Nigerian. His sermon was 35 minutes, but fascinating if you could get used to his (non-Irish!) accent. It was quite Hellfire and Brimstone. (The last time one of our associates tried to give an H&F sermon, it came out very Heckfire and Brimpebble. This guy means it!) Actually, it was on the "Aslan is not a tame lion" style. You can't just mouth happy thoughts and know "God loves me so I'll be OK," you have to repent. Really repent. He made the 35 minutes bearable because he was down in the aisle, he was gesturing, he was demonstrating a tradition of hundreds of years of storytelling. I like him a lot! I also think it's possible we'll have Masses that ("yes!) sound like ("tell it, sister!) African ("That's right!") Methodist ("Amen!") Episcopal ("Praise the Lord!") services! That's going to shake us up a bit!

I came home to find my Christmas Cactus all over the kitchen floor. Kittens. Gotta love them!

Then it was off to see South Pacific at Davis. I was particularly taken with Bloody Mary and the man who played Emile, who turns out to be an opera professor at CSUS. I wondered why I hadn't seen him before... he's terrific! I also got another birthday present, a Trick or Treat bowl with a green hand, that says "Trick or Treat!" and "Happy Hallowe'en!" when someone comes near.

Email greetings came from Pagan, thanks, and some people around the world who read the birthday list: the Netherlands, Italy, California, and one I couldn't decode.

I said last year that 54 sucked. Well, it did, a lot of the time, despite the graduation and wedding and kittens, mostly because my shoulders were such a literal pain. I am terribly afraid that it's only downhill from here, but we'll soldier on and see. A good thing that happened was, FINALLY, menopause. I'm two pounds up from last week, but I weigh 11 pounds less than last year. Still 9 to go, or if I want to be where I was when I met Wowbagger, 13.
About 15 magazines gone, if you count (and I do) the old Analogs that went to the booksale. I only mailed some stuff to Vince and Bernadette, but I'm still chugging along getting organized. I danced Monday and walked around the ballpark on Sunday and Thursday, and went with Rich and the dog once, so while it wasn't 20 miles, I did get some exercise.