Countdown to Melfest 6.0

Today my sister kicked off the festivities with her Facebook post recognizing what I have come to call the month of October - Melfest. I won't downplay my love for my birthday as friends and family can attest and the renaming of my birth month was an over time series of events that started when I married Ray Brenner the day after my 26th birthday. So for all you holiday birthday whiners who feel gypped when you get the Christmas/birthday gift, know that I purposely chose to put two life celebrating events back to back and thus create an efficiency in gift giving. Yes I'm that good of a partner.

I've lived a number of different places and had a lot of different jobs and am really fortunate to have made great friends all along the way. One of my dearest friends, Celeste, also has an early October birthday and we established a tradition of celebrating collectively and suddenly my two day event became a week. So the first week of October became Cel/Melfest and was generally held on a island off the coast of Maine - so not the most accessible for the gen pop. Not to worry, I am was more than happy to stretch out the free drinks and general get-out-of-jall-free card you can finagle when you use the magic words "my birthday" for every social encounter of the month. And then we wrap things up with one of everyone's favorite festivities - Halloween, the truly ageless holiday.

As I sit here at the magic hour when the light gets soft and golden and the dogs are slightly restless for dinner, I want to only look forward and excitedly embrace where I am going and put behind me the sadness and self doubt that has been so much a part of the past year, Let me acknowledge my gratitude for the strength I am reminded I have and the new opportunities created by my painful and sometimes selfish choices. Let the past be in my rearview mirror and eyes and heart forward start the new adventures each day brings.