Always on My Birthday

It never fails. Something always happens on my birthday. Where the Chinese have said "May you live in interesting times" those times seem to occur either planned or unexpectedly around the day of my arrival, starting on the very day that I was born.

My cousin took the bus in the early 1960s from her home in Virginia to the deep Midwest the Summer I was due to help my mother keep house and care for my older sister as Mom prepared for her second blessed event, me. On the actual day the story goes that Mom was in the kitchen frying chicken when and stated she had been in labor for some time when my cousin had simply asked after her general condition. A war of wills broke out as Cousin dragged Mom to the hospital with Mom protesting all the way up to the delivery room that she wasn't ready and had left her chicken sitting in the grease on top of the stove back home. Something like an hour or so later my voice and lungs were in full throat, joyously proclaiming my acceptance in to the company of rulers, writers, inventors, scholars, soldiers, athletes, singers, actors and museum curators who shared the same day.

Over the years I have come to the conclusion that birthdays are meant to be celebrated. Those of you who instantly defaulted to "party time" might be surprised to learn that I simply mean taking time in SOME fashion to acknowledge the fact that I was born, that I am here, that I have earned the privilege of meaning something to at least one other person and that I'm equally grateful to have them as a part of my life. It means, to me, taking time off of work or whatever the daily routine is and being thankful to have done more than just survived another year. How about being happy in just being alive and in good health or, if not, having the strength of will and character to keep going, to fight for what is desired and reach for those long held dreams and goals. Oh alright, already...I won't turn down a slice of cake if you insist!

On or around my birthday so many notable things have happened. I've begun and ended relationships, accepted jobs and promotions, taken amazing trips and vacations somewhere in the world and yes, even endured a few disappointments along the way. Two particular highlights were involved seeing Tina Turner live in Wales on the very day of my birthday and again on the exact day two years ago in Dallas when Earth Wind & Fire came to town. The Chinese proverb of living in "interesting" times holds true for me, a proud, card carrying member of the Cancer zodiac club.

This year there is a family wedding the week after my birthday so that pretty much sets the table for this year's event and it will serve for me as a nice bookend to the one-year anniversary of launching this website. Now that's a passing of time that I'm pretty pleased about.

Happy Birthday,

Gotta go.

Vacation Rhythm

In Japan there are three major domestic holiday periods that significantly set the rhythm of the nation: New Years', "Golden Week" in early May and the month of August.

Japanese culture reveres the first sunrise of the new year as an omen for prosperity so the entire country picks a favorite hilltop or other vantage point to park themselves before dawn to watch the (Land of the Rising) Sun come up. Unlike their European brethren who simply take August to bake on the beaches of Florida, Spain, Greece and Northern Africa, the Japanese celebrate "O-bon," the Buddhist festival of paying respects to the ancestors. All flights and trains are booked solid and the highways are bumper to bumper as the entire nation picks up as a single body and sorts itself out at familial places of birth across every inch of the island country.

"Golden Week" includes holidays on May 3rd, 4th and 5th as well as April 29th should any given year dial up that date in the same calendar week. This one week celebrates everything from Hirohito's birthday to the promulgation of their post-war constitution. Of the three, this one is "at your leisure" meaning they are not hide bound to climb a mountain or go "down home" to fix up the family graveyards; they're free to travel wherever their means and desires carry them.

These are the moments when all of Japan is "out of the office." I learned of this rhythm, which also includes skewing most national holidays to a "Happy Monday" schedule, while traveling there on business and it caused me to reflect on the rhythm of my own country and in particular when I personally like to be "out of the office."

The major holiday season for the United States is largely considered to begin in September over the Labor Day weekend, ironically right around the beginning of the school year. The kids are back in school and "Opening Weekend" for the National Football League is more on the minds of Americans than the reason behind the holiday, even among the workers it is intended to honor. After that each holiday is fairly evenly spaced from one to the next, including the non-official "holiday" of Halloween but all are merely opening acts to Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Corporations start wrapping up next year's budget, major projects typically get tabled until January and people start to think towards travel, turkey and (snow) tires. This is the season that I like to schedule my own major vacations. Where some like to take time off early in the year in way that extends the holidays from the previous year, by January I'm ready mentally to get back to work and set up the bulk of the year for professional achievement and success. By the end of the year I like to look back, reflect on accomplishments, focus on missed opportunities and celebrate a lot of hard work with a good long paid leave of absence, preferably overseas.

Over my history I traveled to Greece in November and experienced Australia, Egypt, Israel and New Zealand in October. Not only did I spend all year looking forward to these wonderful opportunities but I learned to appreciate carefully planned shoulder- and low-season travel savings as well! The one major exception to that pattern was visiting Thailand in July (also low season) but that was entirely because I was a retail store manager; nobody in retail has a life of their own from October to January which was a Top Five reason for me quitting that industry.

I'll get a little bit more in to what I actually consider a vacation and the types of vacations I like to take a bit later. Let's just say that I enjoy good weather, limited crowds and a good bargain!
Now if only the U.S. would guarantee three-day weekends for its major holidays. Happy Friday, y'all!

Gotta go!

A Favorite Holiday

Merry Christmas one and all! While I am certainly hoping you are all enjoying the merriest of holidays and spending quality time with your friends and family I offer this short post in case any of you arrive here after all the presents and pudding. Rather than go in to some self-aggrandizing article on what the holiday season means to me or what I feel it should mean to others I'll simply share a particular favorite.

One year my mother decided it would be a great idea to take the kids to Garmisch-Partenkirchen near the Austrian border and just underneath the Zugspitze, Germany's highest mountain. The Alps were unimaginable to a girl like my mother who grew up on a farm in rural Southern Virginia. Never had she imagined anything as spectacular as the mountains of Southern Germany and to this day we continue the debate on whether any other view is as comparable.

Off we go on the train from Stuttgart where we were living at the time to Munich for a local connection that took just as long to reach Garmisch, seemingly stopping at every town with a platform along the way. With weather out of a postcard, the valley wore its best winter finery with snow capped peaks in every direction under a royal blue sky, pastel murals on white washed buildings and surprisingly few people around. It was busy but not "chocka" or gridlocked at all.

Why the Winter Olympics have not returned here is beyond me. The setting is idyllic and mom was certainly in heaven itself. She made one mistake, though. Staying on the military kaserne in the area to save money we had to drive by the base movie theater to get to the Patton Hotel. Lo and behold that very afternoon they were screening "The Wizard of Oz."

Even then in the early 70s we knew "Oz" only came around on television once a year in the Spring and very rarely at all did it make the theaters. We wanted to go, Mom wanted to see the mountains, the battle was joined.

"We wanna see The Wizard!"

"We came to see the mountains!"

"YOU came to see the mountains!" Duck. Whoosh!

"Don't get smart. We didn't come all this way to sit in a movie theater."

"But we're not gonna climb the mountains and they aren't going anywhere. We can see 'em next year but the Wizard may not come again at all!"

We won. And in the theater, of course, at any age "Oz" is simply breath taking. True to her word, though, Mom dragged us back to Garmisch the following Christmas. When we got back to Stuttgart from this first trip, however, we found that "Oz" was due to play there the following week!

Gotta go!