The Best Gwensday of the Year

Happy Thanksgiving Eve a/k/a my favorite Gwensday! I'm sure you're all sick of me referencing my birthday, but too bad because I'm going to do it again. A couple years ago my birthday was on Thanksgiving Eve and I posted about it here, along with some stories of birthdays and Thanksgivings past. (Don't dump all the potato water! Or, if you're me, do it and just don't care.)

Last night I walked a block to Little Rock Bar for karaoke night. Kat couldn't go but I decided to go by myself, and while the place was busy, none of the usual Tuesday night regulars were there. But I hung out for a while and sang and met some new people. It helps that I go there often enough that the karaoke dude and the bartenders and the owner all know me.

This must have been there Saturday too, but I didn't see it until last night.

Here's a playlist of the songs I did last night. "Glitter in the Air" and "Killing Me Softly" are favorites of mine, but the other two I had never sung before. What the hell, I didn't know most of the people there anyway!




We had snow yesterday and I couldn't resist taking this picture of our poor grasses in front of the house on my way home:

Aaron was fast asleep when I got home and the cats were pretty settled in, although I didn't see Bella at first. But then I found her snuggled in a pile of laundry:

She really got herself in there! 

And maybe she's not as airheaded as we thought - this morning Aaron realized that our heat wasn't on and it was only 58 degrees in the house!

And so as I write this, I'm in front of the fire and here's my view outside:

In case you can't tell, it's snowing. Sideways.

I hope everyone celebrating Thanksgiving tomorrow has a wonderful holiday. Safe travels to all! We're hosting and the house already smells so good (no thanks to me - Aaron does almost all of the cooking).

Birthday Weekend Windup

Thank you to everyone for the Facebook messages, texts and tweets for my birthday! Aaron is always amazed by how many FB birthday greetings I receive, and he found the perfect birthday card for me:

Inside: "Which automatically makes this paper card
from me all the more special!"

Friday night we sang for a concert at church. My mom came over for that and spent the night with us, so she was here for some of my birthday. Saturday was Ohio State's last home game, so Aaron and I and Colin and Amy headed to campus to watch the game and partake in some adult beverages.

Birthday selfie; Most trees have lost their leaves, but not this one on our street; Beer tower;
Inside the Ohio State union

I couldn't resist a screenshot at the exact time of my birth.

Let's just say that on Saturday I acted half my age. And on Sunday I felt twice my age.


Our niece Jackie created this for me. I absolutely love it - she is so talented!

It was a fantastic birthday weekend! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend as well.

Two Score and Six Years Ago...

It's my birthday, mofos! I don't want y'all to tax yourselves on a Saturday figuring out that title so I'll just tell you that today I'm 46. When my mom turned 46, I was 21. Now that I'm 46, I sometimes act like I'm 21. That's similar, right?

There's that squinty eye that shows up in selfies.

When I was in 4th grade, we moved from Erie, PA to Ellwood City, PA. My new next door neighbor was Lisa and guess what? We shared the same birthday! She was a year younger than me AND I was born at 1:40 pm and she was born at 1:43. So we always laughed about being a year and three minutes apart.

Lisa and me, 1978

According to the writing on the back of this picture, this was my 11th birthday.
That's some sweet wallpaper in my bedroom.

I believe this was my 24th birthday, when Aaron gave me this inappropriate shirt (there's a better
picture of the shirt here).

For my 30th birthday, I knew Aaron had something planned but he totally surprised me with a trip to Chicago. He had me think that we were going out with his sister, Cynthia, and brother-in-law, Jim, and Cynthia and I were supposedly going to the airport to pick up Jim. When we arrived, Jim wasn't there, but Aaron was. He had packed a bag for me (when he told Cynthia that he was pretty sure he knew which makeup to pack, she said "take it all"), but unfortunately had chosen jeans from the "I hope I can wear these again someday" pile. So I had to go shopping in Chicago for jeans.

My reaction when we got to the airport; outside a Chicago bar to watch OSU/Michigan. 

For my 40th birthday I flat out told Aaron that I wanted a party. He said "can it be a surprise?" Hahaha! It also happened to be just a couple months after we moved into our new house so we made it a combination birthday/housewarming party.

Top right: my sister-in-law Mozella, my brother John, me and Aaron

You can read about some other past birthdays in this post. Who knows what today will bring? I guess you'll have to check back Monday!

Hair Adventures Through the 90s and Beyond

Sometime in high school - junior year, maybe - I started getting perms. If you looked at my childhood and teenage years' pictures you saw that my hair was pretty fine and straight, and then it started getting wavy and hard to understand. Enter the spiral perm.

1. 1990 - My mom trying to teach me to knit. It didn't take.
2. Spring 1990
3. 1993 with Katy (college roommate) and Kim (big sis)
4. 1991 on our honeymoon at the zoo in DC
5. Mid-90s - I just liked the picture

1995, before "selfie" was a word in the dictionary. My first view of the Pacific Ocean.

On our honeymoon, Aaron discovered that I had grey hairs. I was 23. I pretty much immediately called my stylist and the coloring phase began. After a while I didn't want to both color and perm, so the perms lost. Thus began a frustrating period of trying to straighten my hair.

Cute kid pictures!
1. With niece Jacqueline at Cynthia's wedding, 1996
2. Nephew Jeremy, 1997-ish
3. Godson Max, 1999
4. Nephews James and Jeremy, 2001

With my brother, 1999

Then one miraculous day, I tried using my diffuser and discovered that I had beautiful curls. Without a perm. I did go through another straight phase but now I definitely embrace the curl!

I had to include this because of that funky curl.

Easter, 2000 or 2001? 

With Aaron and his sisters and their husbands and our niece Lauren, 2001 (Lauren is now 13!)

Tomorrow I'll be recalling birthdays past!

The "Middle" Years

Today we're looking at the years between roughly 5th grade and college. Are you ready?

On the left is my Grandma Tickner. She died in 1980 and I don't know if I have any other pictures with her except when I was a baby. On the right? Yeah, I don't know what to tell you.

Not sure what happened to 6th grade...

Senior year, high school.

When it was time for senior photos, I was our high school's "model" for one of the photography studios. I got tons of pictures. Look at that middle one - I don't even have a waist! I was pretty much boobs and legs back then.

For the newspaper ad, they actually chose one of these:

I think I "only" got one or two prank phone calls after the ad first appeared. Haha!

College

More to come tomorrow!

Gila: The Early Years

Birthday Week continues with some fabulous pictures of me under age 10. Yes, that means some black & white.

Not looking too happy here

Gimme food!

At Cedar Point. The hat was purchased there, it had a braid down the back.
I loved it.

We had that rocking chair for years.

This is the picture we put on my 40th birthday invitations.

Christmas. I think this is the year I got my own camera.

2nd grade, shag haircut, missing teeth

3rd grade, inklings of crazy cat lady emerge

4th grade. I have no words.

My aunt always dressed up as Santa. Pretty sure my fly is open here.
Awesome.

Next up: 5th - 12th grade.