Follow Up Friday

From the bottom of my heart, thank you so much for all of the good wishes and thoughtful comments after my last post. I haven't yet managed to respond personally to everyone, for two reasons.

One is that I'm completely overwhelmed by the massive amount of support and love I've received, not just in the past few days but over the past year. I just can't even express my gratitude.

The other reason may fall under TMI, but this week I got hit with the worst urinary tract infection I've ever experienced. I was so sick I asked Aaron to leave a customer's house to drive me to the doctor. So the night we were supposed to go out for a celebratory dinner? I was in bed with soup and crackers and cranberry juice. Not cool.

Moving on...

I debated with myself over mentioning this. A random act of kindness is supposed to be selfless and I don't want you to think I'm sharing this to make myself look good.

Last weekend Aaron and I ate dinner at a local restaurant and we noticed a family sitting nearby. There was a mom and dad and two young children, one around three years old, the other maybe eighteen months. As you might imagine, the parents had their hands full, especially the mom, who was trying to eat while the youngest child was dancing on the booth seat immediately next to her. (By the way, the dancing was super cute.) Aaron said "we should buy their dinner," And so we did.

The truth is that a random act of kindness isn't selfless. It makes the giver feel really damn good. It doesn't have to be dinner for four, it can be carrying someone's groceries. Try it, you'll like it!

They Say It's Your Birthday

No, it's not already time for MY birthday but quite a few friends of mine are celebrating birthdays this weekend, three of them today.

Our friend Ken turns 50 today. His wife Robin organized a different kind of surprise party for him. She asked all his friends to perform a random act of kindness in his honor and then post it on his Facebook page or Twitter or Instagram. She was hoping for 50 random acts and that number was surpassed!

My college friend Michelle a/k/a Mickey was not only my grand-big in our sorority (Gamma Phi Beta) but we were also in choir together and worked in the English department together. She lives clear across the country so we haven't seen each other in years, but we were reunited through the magic of Facebook. Here we are on choir tour during spring break, 1987.

I met my friend Mandy because I sing with her mom. Their whole family is like my second family and I love them all. Mandy is a therapist for kids, which I admire so much. In 2004, Mandy and her now-husband Keith and Aaron and I went to New Orleans for a long weekend, which is when this picture was taken. (Mandy, don't worry, this was on Day One!)

On Monday our niece Julia turns nine! Yes, she's a St. Patrick's baby. She has become such a sweet, caring, smart, creative girl. This is one of my favorite pictures when she was just 3 1/2.

Tomorrow is Steph's birthday. Many of you know her from Life According to Steph (and if you haven't already, go over there and check out her surprise of blogger birthday sentiments, including mine). Last year I devoted a post to her, you can read that here and see lots of pictures of us in various bars and on the beach at her wedding.



That's right, Steph and aren't just showbiz bloggy friends, we're for real friends. Steph's the kind of friend you want on your side through thick and thin. She also pays attention. One year for my birthday she made a mix CD that included my favorite songs as well as some of her favorite songs. That CD introduced me to this version of the song "One."




And here we are last November when I went to Philly to visit her.

Happy Birthday weekend to all these fabulous people!

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