HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Another birthday has come and gone, and the holiday season has now officially begun. 36 sounds like such an awful number. My birthday is never a happy time for me - too much reflection and introspection and contemplation and all that. And I found a gray hair last week. The first one, or at least the first one I've found. So that doesn't make things any better.

When I got to work yesterday, my desk was, as expected, festooned with streamers and balloons and letters on a string spelling out 'Happy Birthday'. After the fourth or fifth person that walked by and said 'Oh, is today your birthday?' Instead of responding as I wanted to by saying 'No shit', I took the decorations down.

I always look at where I am, and where I'm going. This year, of course, I'm thinking about my dad, and my mom, and the fact that this will be the first holiday season without both of them, which leaves me with a very lonely feeling. And I think about my birth mother (yes, I was adopted at 2 months old) and wonder if she's thinking about me and wondering whatever happened to the baby girl she gave up. Yet another question I'll probably never have an answer to. I've half-heartedly tried a few times to track her down, but it's just never seemed worth the effort.

But for all that, I do have quite a bit to be thankful for today. My son and husband, of course. Close friends that have become my family. In-laws that, however frustrating, are loving and helpful in their own way. A house, a job, and food on the table.

So happy Thanksgiving to you and yours. I truly hope you all are as blessed as I am!