Fifty

I turned 50 years old yesterday. I spent most of the day with my son, who took me to dinner and bought me a nice cake. He's a great kid.

I spoke with Leslie at length yesterday; I do a lot of days. I miss her. It would have been nice to share my day with her as well. Her birthday is later this month, and I think I'll be able to make it to share it with her.

My 50th birthday seemed ironically familiar to my late wife's 50th birthday several years ago. That day at work was tinged with the pain of loss; a co-worker had been found dead. I left there emotionally exhausted, and picked up my family for dinner with several of Jan's friends.

Despite celebrating what has been a decent and fortunate life so far, my thoughts at times were away with her, even though she's been gone almost 3 years and I am moving forward with my life. My thoughts and prayers are also with fellow blogger Ralph D'Andrea and his family. Ralph's youngest daughter was found dead in her apartment last week. She was pregnant as well.

Ralph asked his readers and fellow bloggers for posts to keep things going, so I sent him one.
I think that I'll leave any further comment on that to those who knew and loved Carina.

Evan and I spent last evening watching the Oscars, which were somewhat enjoyable. I got the feeling that Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin were walking on comedic eggshells, afraid to say something really funny for fear of bruising some of the famously fragile egos in the audience. One thing that stuck out was a return to using the phrase "and the winner is...", instead of the more recent "and the Oscar goes to...". All except a radiantly defiant Kate Winslet used it in their presentations.

Aside from all that, I now know that I need to catch up on my movies. I wrested The Hurt Locker from the Redbox tonight.

Gene Kinsey dismissed the show as "Hollywood narcissism", and it's easy to find examples of that throughout what passes for entertainment. I tend to look for the diamonds in the rough, those who raise themselves even above the extraordinary to display grace and humility while basking in the limelight.

Considering all of the emotions I was feeling yesterday, I can think of no better way to conclude than with a portion of Sandra Bullock's acceptance speech last night. She thanked her mother for "reminding her daughters that there's no race, no religion, no class system, no color..no sexual orientation that makes us better than anyone else. We are all deserving of love".

Good night.