I got some pretty amazing birthday cards this year. I felt that my friends and family were marking not only my birthday but also the beginning of this new phase of my life, post-divorce, beginning grad. school, with my old name back, all these changes of late.

A.J. wrote me a birthday card as if writing me a letter. It is one of the most moving letters I have ever received. I will share just one sentence of it here. He wrote:

Thanks for everything you do for me, and thanks for accepting me and all my friends, because to me, they're family too.


Wow. Could he have said that better? It makes me remember exactly what it was like to be his age, and I know that my mom, for all of her difficulties, taught me this acceptance. She was the mom who would always welcome our friends, who would always listen to them and to us, and who the cute guys I liked secretly had crushes on. I think that I am a much different mom than she was, but I also know that I learned some very good lessons from her example.

A.J. just reminded me of that.

I have a lot of work to do for my two grad. school classes, but I'm really loving it. I feel as though I am swimming in the deep end some of the time. It's not the most comfortable place to be but I really want to be there. I came down with a very sore throat overnight and will get myself tested for strep, just in case. I refuse to miss class, so I have to be healthier by Tuesday night!

I don't think that my little musical link is working. I wish someone would try it and let me know.

Really enjoying Rachel Fuller's music and her blog, which is at:
www.rachelfuller.blogspot.com for those of you who might like to visit and soak up Rachel's music, good heart, and humor. Discovering her music has been a joy for me this month.

(A.J. likes some of her songs, too, said one was "hard as hell" and that it sounded like metal, and that was a compliment.)

What I like about her music is that she bridges all kinds of styles and she is able to incorporate her classical piano training with rock and pop in a unique way. I love her demos which are up on her site, some I love even better than her more produced recordings on her CD "Cigarettes and Housework." Give her a listen, please!

Going to go nurse this sore throat a bit more, and then it's time for my chiropractic appointment. I had hoped to go piano shopping again today, but as my friend Joe would say: "It's not happening!"