Another Page Turns

I am a year older today than I was yesterday.  It's funny, but I don't feel any different.  What's even more funny is that I don't remember feeling any different than I did in my 30s, or even in my 20s.  Sure, I have more gray hair than I would like to admit.  Gone are the days when I used to color my hair purely for vanity.  Gone also are the days when I wore make-up to enhance my looks, not cover my flaws.  So much for not feeling any different, I guess.  No matter how I have handled it, age has crept up on me and has changed me.  That isn't necessarily a bad thing though.  I will continue to be a work in progress the rest of my life.  But the more I think about it, the closer I have come to becoming a person I can love and I can live with.  There are still things about myself that I want to change, but these changes I want to make are for myself and nobody else.


But enough about me.  This past year has seen a sea of changes.  Most days were calm and serene, but there were some storms and hurricanes through which I didn't think I would make it. There were cakes baked, cakes eaten, cakes enjoyed.  There were SQL queries, there were dreams of SQL, there was managing projects, there was a piano, there was Japanese food for lunch almost every Thursday with some great people at work.  There were people who moved on so they could be happier.  There were movies, there was the first baseball game I went to.  There was Russell Peters live.  There were all my relatives. There was a relationship that ended.  There were old friendships revived, there were new friendships made.  There were births, there were deaths.  There was heartache, there was joy.  There was so much that went on! 

If I were to pick the most significant things that happened over the past year, I would be remiss if I didn't mention the piano.  I tell this story wherever I go, so some of you may have heard it before.  This story goes back to about 16 years ago when I had a piano that I couldn't take with me when moving to a new country, the one I now call home.  That was the piano on which I had learned to play, the one that I had since I was 12, the one that meant the world to me.  All I wanted for it was a good home and to give it to someone who deserved it.  I sold it to a very good friend of mine, for a price that people thought was too little.  It didn't matter to me what people thought, because I believed in my heart that the piano that meant so much to me had found its new home.  Fast forward to 2010, and under the most unlikely circumstances, I got a piano (above) for which I only had to pay the moving charges.  The "Piano Story" as I call it, taught me that when you do something with good intention, somewhere down the road you will have it come back to you.  I apologize for the poor quality of the picture, but it was taken with a Blackberry phone that didn't have the best camera.


The other incident that I must mention happened only a few days ago.  A very good friend of mine, Sandra, found me through Facebook after nearly 20 years.  Sandra and I go way back.  We were in High School together.  We stayed in touch through our college years.  We hung out together a lot.  We went to movies, plays, lunches, dinners.  Sandra saw me through some really great times and some really bad times.  She was there at my older brother's wedding.  She was there 25 years ago when my father passed away.  Somehow we lost touch over the years as each of us went our separate ways.  I don't know if I ever got to thank Sandra for being there for me.  I am so glad that we are back in touch.  

Yes, this past year has seen so many ups and downs.  I am so blessed that I have people in my life who are there for me, no matter what.  I also have to mention the non-human person in my life.  Through it all I had my dog JackJack (right), who just by being himself returns a semblance of sanity to a world that goes crazy every now and then.  One look into his puppy eyes, one wag of his tail, one tiny kiss he plants on my forehead, and everything is back to normal again.  I still can't believe the circumstances that brought us together.  Truly a miracle.  


So thank you everybody for another year.  I am blessed with good health, wonderful people (and dog) and all the material things I need, and then some.  Thanks be to the God I believe in, who has kept His promise of not leaving or forsaking me.  


Here's to life.