Happy Birthday

Today is my dad's 60th birthday and his first birthday since he died last October. It's a rough day. I wanted to do something and I wasn't sure what but I finally decided to make him his favorite dinner, beef stew and carrot cake. I hate carrot cake but he loved it. My friend will come have dinner with me and maybe later we'll watch Popeye; my dad played Oxblood Oxheart.


Finally I'll leave you with this poem by Philip Booth. I'm trying to remmebr that the sea will hold me too.

First Lesson

Lie back daughter, let your head
be tipped back in the cup of my hand.
Gently, and I will hold you. Spread
your arms wide, lie out on the stream
and look high at the gulls. A dead-
man's float is face down. You will dive
and swim soon enough where this tidewater
ebbs to the sea. Daughter, believe
me, when you tire on the long thrash
to your island, lie up, and survive.
As you float now, where I held you
and let go, remember when fear
cramps your heart what I told you:
lie gently and wide to the light-year
stars, lie back, and the sea will hold you.

--Philip Booth