Loose Leaf Notes

1. I blew out the candles on my birthday cake and made a wish that Trump would be removed from office and held accountable.

2. This year, I celebrated with Joe, a few friends and the Grateful Dad’s at the Buffalo Mountain Brewery.

3. It happens every year. I have my cake and eat it too. 

4. There were flowers and brews, dancing and a smash burger from The Turner family’s Vittels food truck. I kept thinking it was an annual celebration and that it was my anniversary.

5. Last year’s Birthday Reckoning also included Grateful Dead music. It came with homemade strawberry shortcake and a chorus of young festival class clowns singing Happy Birthday to me.  Listen HERE.

6. This year I got a birthday serenade from the Grateful Dads.

7. I passed out a lot of hearts on Facebook in answer to many Happy Birthday wishes, and that is without listing my birth date on Facebook.

8. In 2017 I celebrated my birthday with my friend Gary’s mom, who like me was born on May 17. She was turning 100!

9. And the year before that I was recovering from a mouth graft surgery.  “My chin and jaw are swollen / I look like Jay Leno,” I joked / “I couldn’t get those instant cold packs to work / So I held a bag of frozen corn on my face.”  Read Are You Alright? in its entirety HERE.

10. When Mother’s Day and your birthday fall only days apart and you have three friends whose birthdays do too: See HERE and don’t forget to notice my cake.

11. The night before my birthday, we poked around and let our hair down on Shakedown Street DJING AND DANCING THROUGH THE DECADES with our friend DJ Sp_ce Boy.  It was as close to a Rave as I’ll get, but don’t feel bad for me, I have seen Sly and the Family Stone live (which he did play). See HERE. 

12. My friend Chef Kelly Urb has been making my birthday carrot cake for more than 20 years. There is none that compares!

13. That cake really made the rounds this year.