45

Yes.  I’ve been absent from my blog for a while.  Life has been busy – and good!

In September

• I went to a few football games under the Friday night lights and in the steamy heat of a Saturday – ah, September in MN
• I spent time with friends, sitting in the creek with margaritas on that steamy Saturday, celebrating milestone birthdays, and organizing Cosmo Girls for year 4
• I’ve been spending time with this guy I have been dating, whenever our schedules (and the stars) align.
• I was preparing for a trip to NYC, so I had to work a little extra on the front end.
• I made it to two movies in the theatre:
  The Family (with Chris) – a mobster in witness protection.  Robert DeNiro still has it, at 70 years old!  Amazing.
  The Spectacular Now (with Marie) – I was excited to see this, and it didn’t live up to expectations.  It was just ok and mostly depressing.  
• I finished Orange is the New Black on Netflix, and it is worth watching.
• I spent a lot of time listening to Broadway Cast Recordings of Cinderella and Matilda and reading My City, My New York in preparation for my (annual) birthday trip to New York City.  

So, yes, now there has been a birthday.

I flew out 9/30/13 and spent my 45th birthday (10/1/13) in NYC celebrating in style!  I’ll do a recap post of that trip later, but it was another amazing trip which makes me feel so blessed.

For my 44th year, I divided the year into quarters and made lists of 11 things to do or look forward to in each quarter.  I didn’t complete them all, but it was a fun way to organize the year.  You can read the summary posts from the first three quarters here:  Quarter 1, Quarter 2, Quarter 3.

Here is a wrap-up of the 4th quarter of my 44th year:,

my final 11 things: 

1. Fourth of July!  Always a great time with family – relaxing time at the end of the dock, fireworks, great food and photo ops!
2. Plan a Book Fest!First annual?  Bi-annual? Bookish food and treats?  Crafts?  Oh my!  It’s coming right up, but it’s in the planning stages!  It was SOOOO awesome!  You can read all about it here!  I am just starting to think about Book Fest 2.0!
3. Ferragosto!  I can’t wait for my made up mid-August celebration!  More details to follow!  You can read all about it – here!  Buon Ferragosto!
4. New York City! Looking forward to planning my annual trip to NYC!  It will make turning a year older more palatable! The trip is history – and it definitely was a great time… such a great way to spend a birthday!
5. Books! Read and listen as much as possible! Tragic fail… keep on plugging away!  I actually did TWO book reviews and giveaways this quarter, so I guess that’s where my reading was focused – on The Promise of Provence and Freud’s Mistress – click to read more!
6. Cosmo Girls! Start planning for 2013-2014!  Organized and rolling along!  We had a great organizational meeting and a terrific first meeting of the year! It’s going to be a great year!
7. State Fair? Go if I can!  I guess I can – I went THREE times!
8. Help Marissa move and get settled! Done!  It was a hot hot day we moved her in, but she is well-settled, the apartment is cute, and she is having a great time and great success in graduate school!  Woot!
9. Ferragosto Ferragosto Ferragosto!  I have a feeling it’ll be the best ever!  Again – see above!  It was terrific!
10. Sit down and … play piano or write poems or letters or play accordion… take time.  Well, also a fail.  Didn’t get much “time” for any of that but it’s all good!
11. What do you think I should add to my list?

So as you can see, not even 11 things on the list, but still a fun way to remember the year.

And for this year, 45?  

Maybe I’ll do something creative with 45 records (remember them?) like “on the flip side” or “B Side”… have ideas?  

I learned that 45 is the sum of all the numbers (0+1+2+3+4+5+6+7+8+9 = 45), the dialing code for Denmark (+45), a gun or ammunition (.45), and the sapphire wedding anniversary.  

Elvis Costello wrote this song called 45 (http://youtu.be/KPZkldKk1WA), referring to record singles and his age when he wrote the song.  A catchy song… There are lots more songs and movies and other information you can read about online – thanks Wikipedia!  

So I haven’t fleshed out the plan or theme for being 45, but I’m enjoying every minute of it so far!

Related articles

• Jackman spends his birthday on stage (iol.co.za)
• I Want To Go To There – NYC (littlebirdnightowl.wordpress.com)
• 45 (cathyzielske.typepad.com)
• Naomi Watts: 45th Birthday This Week! (justjared.com)
• Of Birthdays, and what-not! (samihaanzary.wordpress.com)