HAPPY 60th!

Today is my wonderful mother's 60th birthday. (Happy Birthday, Mom!) Here is just a small list of why my mom is the best:

1. In elementary school, when I waited until 8pm to tell her that I needed to have something green to wear to school the next day (for some spirit day event), and there wasn't one green article in my closet and all the stores were closed...my mom spent the night sewing me a green shirt.
2. When I wanted a sewing machine of my own (so I, too, could turn out miraculous green shirts), my mom didn't give it to me on Christmas or my birthday (which is two days later), she put it under the tree on December 26...three whole days with gifts!
3. She drove 7 hours in one day just so she could drive me home from the doctor's office when I had my laser eye surgery.
4. She makes my favorite cake on my birthday even though no one else in the family really likes it as much as me (yellow cake with chocolate frosting).
5. She got me into Santa Clara University.
6. She is addressing all the wedding invitations and knows full well that she is working with a bride who is a stickler for perfection. (They're fabulous, though.)

Like I said, a small list. She's great and I am blessed to have her as a Mom. I look forward to all of you meeting her!!

Love you, Mom!

PERHAPS A WARM GLASS OF MILK?

I've been having trouble sleeping lately. Even if I'm tired, I get into bed and my mind starts rattling off the three thousand little things I need to do - write the rent check, email the hotel about a rehearsal dinner, research Portland flights, etc. And of course these things keep me awake instead of making me fall asleep. Go figure. It's like my brain feels that that's the only time when I have no other distractions bothering it, so it can bombard me with all the things I don't think about on a normal basis.

So last night, I decided to try a relaxation exercise I learned in my "Meeting God" class in high school. The exercise has you spend time relaxing each body part from your toes to your head, taking as long as need on each one. I made it to my knees before I started thinking about how my not-sleeping would make for a good blog and I started composing it in my mind. That caused my brain to start shooting off on other tangents - and I was back to where I started. Awake and not relaxed.

It doesn't help that I have to share a bed with a man who falls asleep as soon as his head hits the pillow. Perhaps tonight I will try counting sheep or drinking a warm glass of milk. Yum - it will go nice with my cookies.

HUSBAND

Initially, I was going to write a blog about how weird it's going to be to call Adrian my husband in a few months...so I went to dictionary.com to look up synonyms for "husband". But the stuff I found there makes for a much better blog. Check it out.

Bedmate - okay then...I guess he already is my husband
Helpmate - hmmm...in certain ways, perhaps...like when he helps me open jars or learn what it means to snooze
Main man - as opposed to all my secondary men...they vie constantly to be upgraded to "main" status
Old man - he will be 30 in a couple of months and his metabolism is going to slow down, plus, he already complains of achy knees
Buffalo - not sure I quite understand this one...though he does a mean monkey impression

EARLY MORNING PHONE

If there's one thing that can cause me to go from dead asleep to frightfully awake, it is the ringing of the telephone in the wee hours of the morning. I hate this. I hate the dread it makes me feel - and people, I don't even have children yet. I know from my mom that this malady gets even worse when kids come into the mix. So this is why last night when the phone rang at an ungodly hour, my first reaction wasn't to get up and answer it, my first reaction was to lay in my bed and imagine all the worst things that could have happened to my loved ones (mind you, this was after quickly discounting the fact that it could possibly be one of Adrian's parents getting the time difference wrong). Then it rang again...and again. I still didn't get up to get it - I was petrified. Next to me, Adrian mumbled something about if it was real important, the person would have called our cell phones. Which is true...until I realized that my dad doesn't know my cell phone number - he'd have a hard time even getting my home number if something happened to my mom. Those are just things my mom takes care of. Then it rings for the fourth time and Adrian (my wonderful savior) finally gets up to answer it...and it's a fax! A stupid fax is trying to talk to my phone and with all the technology today, it still can't figure out that there isn't another fax at the line it wants to reach. Instead, the fax has disrupted my sleep, made my heart beat faster than it ever really should, and put horrific images in my mind. Not a good way to start the week.