Julie Pippert: Using My Words

It's my birthday today. And I opened the day with this status: It's my birthday! Hallelujah for another birthday! I am one year closer to my 2 pm glass of wine and nap! One year closer to wearing hats every day (that aren't ball caps). One year closer to being able to say, "I'm old, I've earned the privilege of being irascible, now sod off!" which has a dual purpose of play on words: "take a hike" and "get off my lawn." Also it will force the Autocorrect Generation to go look up a word. HEH! I am truly grateful to get to celebrate another birthday. My 40s have turned into a time of watching friends with major health crises and losing friends way too young. Each week, it seems, someone else gets struck by cancer. My body has turned into a habitable inn for skin cancer, aches, pains, fat cells, and other things I don't enjoy playing host to, but they are minor inconveniences I can work around. They do not take over my internal space l...

BEFORE: AFTER: The best birthday my dog ever had was one of his early ones, age 2. At the time, my husband and I were both working full-time so our dog, Bo, attended a fantastic local doggie daycare in Beverly (MA) run by a great guy named Joe. Joe loved planning parties. We had Halloween parties (with prizes for best doggie costume), playdates, holidays, and birthdays. The birthday cake was meatloaf with mashed potato frosting. It even had fancy script that read, "Happy Birthday to Our Best Friends!" Our dog is a best friend, a member of our family. Like other good friends and members of our family, he dealt with cancer. Luckily, we caught it early -- it was an ugly one with a very low (single digit) survival rate. So we've gotten to celebrate more birthdays with him, and that means so, so much to us. I love birthdays. I love the excuse for a party, a reason to celebrate, getting together with special people, cake (!), giving a gift, and even the singing. I love getting ...