34 stories for my 34th birthday, installment 3

9. I'm having a really excellent brilliant birthday. Yesterday my yotta brilliant counsellor helped me partially convince myself that I'm not as horrible a person as I tend to secretly believe. This morning I got a birthday gift that made me cry. It was a card that said that Gretta, David, and Rachel had purchased, from TEAR fund australia, safe drinking water for one family in Bangladesh, Ethiopa, Laos, Cambodia, or Afghanistan. Actually there were a couple other countries mentioned, but I can't remember them. I was overwhelmed with gratitude for all that I have. It kind of blows me away that one can give a bit of money and see to it that someone who formerly didn't have access to safe drinking water now *does* have that access. I also got a really kewl and enigmatic little magnet, with two words in Thai and the numbers 10 and 26. This from Rachel and Victor, my Thai brother in law, whom I've never met but who is by all reports an amazingly kewl person. Does anyone know what this says? I also got a really kewl book called "Eats, shoots and leaves", which is a funny title which does *not* use the Oxford Comma, the name of which I learned from Gretta. "Oxford Comma" is the antecedent of the second "which" in the preceeding sentence. I read chapter one aloud to Megsie and we laughed and laughed. The author reference the Apostrophe Protection Society, but claims they are too polite and suggests a new militant wing of the organization. One of the things this new militant wing will do is issue stickers which say "this apostrophe is unnecessary." This is such a marvelous idea that I'm going to go order some right now.

10. I have hiked up to and stood directly under Maracas waterfall in Trinidad. It's 91 meters tall. The water thunders down on you, and it's so refreshing cause it's *hot* in Trinidad. I went up there twice back in '98 with other Logoids. It was awesome. If you ever get to stand under a waterfall, go for it.

11. When I was six years old, I ran all over the neighborhood with my friends Jennifer and Sammie. We rode bikes together, and built snowmen, and made little secret houses in the wheat fields at the end of the dirt road. We played in my sandbox, which my dad built for us. There was little or no adult supervision. Recently I have found this amazing, as I would never let my six year old go anywhere without adult supervision. Period. I can't figure out if only our attitudes have changed, or the actual danger level has changed. The thing is, there was *rather* a lot of danger involved for Sammie, Jennifer, and I. More than you could probably imagine. I could tell you more about that sometime, if you like.

12. In third grade I was at McCarver elementary in Tacoma Washington. Our teacher, whose name, alas, I don't remember, gave us an amazing and incredible gift. During second grade, the whole year, she read us 3 chapter books out loud. she read The Lion The Witch and the Wardrobe. And she read Sounder. And she read Pippi Longstocking. I wish I knew her name so I could track her down and thank her.

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