I know I promised to post the second half of the Art Of Going To The Dump today, but something happened yesterday.
Something good.
Something surprising.
Something that made me want to cry, and at the same time count my blessings.
Are you pregnant?
Uh, far from it, but thank you for asking (and for those of you who think that was a joke, ask me about the pregnancy test I had to take when I was fifty-eight years old).
Yesterday afternoon DMP (Dancing Mandolin Player) gave me a surprise 60th birthday party.
I am not sixty yet, but I am not going to wait until December to be proud and somewhat…older. Not now. Not after the best birthday party ever.
My friends were there. New friends, old friends, a young mother. An adorable baby girl. There was a photo board, where we all looked thin and had dark hair. There were memories, lots of them.
And there were mimosas. Lots of them.
And presents!!! Lots of them, too. As my father used to say, “an embarrassment of riches”. And very funny riches they were, too.
And flowers. And food. So much lovely food brought by everyone.
I will post lots more pictures when I get everyone else’s. But let me share a few dessert pics now.
Ellie’s New York cheesecake and her homegrown berries.
Chocolate caramel brownies. To die for.
Linda’s cute cookies.
Patsy’s lemon pudding pie/cake/yummy thing.
No one left hungry. Or thirsty. I think we finished all of the champagne.
There was lots of catching up to do. Lots of stories. Imagine that!
But there were things I wish I’d said. But they were stuck in my throat, just like the tears. Because on that deck, a place where we’ve partied for so many years, I know we were aware of the friends and loved ones who weren’t with us.
But we talked about them. And looked at their smiling photos. And remembered funny things they said or did. Don Rocque. Om and Barbara. Bill and Kathie. Bob Anderson. They would have beaten us all to the buffet table.
Even if they had to contend with these gals.
More photos and more party info coming soon, but here’s one of a very happy great-grandmother with her granddaughter and her 5 month old baby.
Thank you, everyone, for such a special afternoon.
is there any more pie? 
Happy UnBirthday! Your friends are great. What a wonderful surprise for you. But then you’re a great friend, too. We need a picture of the Birthday Girl!
Sharon, I’m working on getting copies of the pictures everyone else took. I was rockin’ my pink cowboy boots from Austin and pretending I was 21.
You have great friends, and I loved the dump story. We used to visit my cousin in Long Lake NY and enjoy the same entertainment. Long Lake is in the Adirondacks, very rural, very beautiful. Many animals made for great stories. My favorite involved my cousin’s friend who hit a fawn with her car, but didn’t kill it. She was able to get the fawn into her front seat and secured it with the seat belt. She then raced through town to the vet’s. When she got home, having saved Bambi, and feeling very Mother Teresaish,her husband demanded to know who the ” ugly,long, blond haired, hippie guy” was. He had been hearing accounts all day of her speeding and wanted an explanation. He accepted her story.
Mary, that is the funniest story!!!! Saving Bambi = having a wild affair with an ugly hippie.
Who would ever put those two things together??
LOVE IT.