Queen Victoria, Bob Dylan ... and me!

What do Queen Victoria, Bob Dylan and I have in common? They were born on my birthday, May 24th! (Being the youngest of the three, however, I suppose it should be more rightly said that I was born on theirs) … Semantics aside, we nevertheless entered the world on the same date (and all Geminis … Yikes!). This year I am actually a year older than last, a common occurrence on one’s birthday, you might be thinking … however last year I turned 55 for the second year in a row. For an entire year I had thought I was 55, only to discover (once I did the math) that that was NOT the case. (Then again, I must tell you that I’m the homeschool mom who never really knew, when asked, what grades my kids were in. It was always embarrassing at the time the question was posed by someone, but totally irrelevant nonetheless. Some things are a state of mind, after all!

For all the negative press I’ve given Facebook lately, I must say it was amazing (and kind of nice) to get all the well wishes from my facebook friends today ... most unexpected! (Many thanks to my sister who, knowing that months often go by without me checking my page, told me it might be a good idea to just log in and take a peek today). Thanks to all for the happy thoughts.

Dana and I spent my birthday at the Business Expo at Bretton Woods, sponsored by the Mount Washington Valley Chamber of Commerce. The best part is usually the networking stuff … seeing all our business friends in a social, ‘play-hookey’-type setting,and such was the case today. At lunchtime we sat with our friends from Great Glen Trails (Loved hearing about Howie and Sue’s recent trip to the Galapagos!). On Dana’s other side was our State Representative (and fellow innkeeper) Ed Butler. (‘Talked long and hard with him about this new tax they’re considering down there in the State House. Don’t get me going on THAT one). The breakout seminars this year at the business conference were okay … I found the Social Networking to be the best of the bunch … but the Keynote Speaker, Mike Kline “The Entrepreneurologist”, was more than worth the price of the lunch and admission! Absolutely FANTASTIC … and more inspirational and motivational than Tony Robins! Mike is one of my very favorite people. Telling us his life story at the end, I can safely say that “No Excuse” should be the motto of every living person who puts the blame for their ‘lack of success’ on someone other than themselves. What a story … but I’ll leave that for when his book comes out.

It was a magnificent day. and we spent the evening having a backyard cookout with my remaining children (Chris now being in Pittsburgh; Zia was working at the Thompson House Eatery). We played round after round of BananaGrams, but somehow, Noah managed to get the better of both Joshua and me. Even so, it was a lovely day!