Celebrate! Celebrate! Dance to the music! Whoa!! Stop right there, Bubba, before I get into a full-blown rendition and start doing my Three Dog Night impersonation (which ain't half bad in my opinion). Why celebrate? J has a birthday today -- he's 12 now! That's physically 12; mentally and emotionally, he's still around 8 or so. Whatever. Anyway, you know what a birthday means - a birthday party! Nothing big, just 2,000 of his closest friends, the better half's family (all 75 of them) and various and sundry friends of the family. All crammed into the house and the back yard. Hmmmm. . . I wonder if I can arrange an "emergency" somewhere that will call me away for about 3 hours (or maybe 3 weeks). Don't get me wrong here, I'm glad J is having a birthday, I just don't like crowds. Call me crazy (why not? the better half does), but I'm just not at my best in large groups of people. My inner caveman moves to the surface, and all I want to do is find a dark corner and cower.

Well, since the party isn't until Sunday afternoon, I have time to prepare myself. Meditation usually works. So would a fifth of Jack Daniels, but since I can't drink like I used to (oh, and I suppose you can?), I guess I'll just gird my loins (gee, another loincloth reference!) and face the music.  ¶ 11:50 AM