12-12-12 and 55

Today is a most auspicious date: 12-12-12. And it is my birthday--so I am one of those cool people! And to make me even cooler, I turn 55 today. That number sounds way too high for me, but there is no way around it: 2012 - 1957 = 55.

My friend Janet challenged me to find 12 ways to celebrate on this day of multiple 12s:

1. I actually started celebrating last night, when my son David took me on a date, just the two of us, to see A Christmas Carol at the Hale Theatre. I suppose we could have gone tonight, but we wanted to see these ladies, and so it had to be not a Wednesday. On Tuesday night, we knew we would be able to watch all three of them perform.

Becky W. M. and Cristina B. S. in their lovely costumes for A Christmas Carol

Bekah M. O., but she has not posted any A Christmas Carol photos, so here she is as the blue fairy in Pinocchio, for your viewing pleasure.

2. While driving home from the theatre, my phone was starting to alert me to text messages. I had this delightful conversation with an unknown person, Britt. (I often get texts or calls from the 435 area code asking for Mandy, just FYI.)

Britt: Hey Mandy, it's Britt. You pierced my tongue today. Is it normal for it to hurt when I swallow water...or my spit? lol [punctuation mine]

Me: This is not Mandy.

Britt. I'm so sorry :)

Me: Oh believe me, I am sorrier...poor you and your tongue!

Britt: Lol. This text made my night! I chose to pierce it. Lol. Didn't think it would be that bad. [punctuation mine]

I did not tell the poor girl that I thought she was a bit of an idiot for getting her tongue pierced, and instead I made her night! Truthfully, I do worry a bit about and have compassion for Mandy's many victims who text or call me about their piercing and tattooing pain! Anyways, that was a fun birthday-eve thing, I thought, in its own way!

3. This morning, my husband called me at work to wish me a Happy Birthday. [He gets up and leaves for work much earlier than I do, and is nice enough to let me sleep.]

4. My daughter Nancy and her daughter Miriam called to wish me a Happy Birthday. I love to talk to them, but it is difficult, because my office has really poor cell phone reception anyway, and they both have really high-pitched voices that do not mediate well over the phone.  I was always having to pretend I understood what Miriam was saying and then ask Nancy for a translation!  Anyways, it was lovely. I took my phone and went and sat on the floor right by some [locked] doors on level three, and got to enjoy the outside view while talking to them. [My office has no windows.]

5. My students are doing "Ten Minutes of Music" in the library atrium. So, even though they are doing this at noon every day this week, Monday through Thursday, it is my birthday week, and I really like it, so it made me really happy. The picture is from Tuesday. Today, instead of Annisija, Bryan and Allie were playing viola. All the days have been great, but today was my favorite, since it is, you know, 12-12-12.

Steve (a former student, now a colleague), Erik, Katherine, Lydia, Cherise and Annisija caroling it up.

This is the group that sang on Thursday Dec. 13 -- when Steve didn't show up, Erik drafted in a friend who happened to walk by, and who has a great baritone voice. I don't know his name. Then we have Erik, Katherine, Lydia and Bryan on the viola.

6. When we got back to the office after the music minutes, my colleague Janet surprised me by coming in and saying "Come on, it's your birthday. I want to take you to lunch." So...she took me to the Cougar Eat and we ate calzones. Which I have never had before. Mine was garlic chicken, and it was really good! That was so nice of Janet!

7. I got back to the office and read this text from my daughter Josie:
"Mommy, I love you so much. I don't think I could ever put into words how much I love and admire you. You sacrifice so much for everyone. I know I frustrate you. A lot. Thank you for accepting to be my mom. I'm 100 percent sure the Lord is 500 percent happy with you. You are amazing. I love you mom. Happy Birthday."  May I just say, wow? Definitely tears in my eyes reading that. Thanks so much, Josie, for such kind words.

8. My sister Arlene called to tell me Happy Birthday. I don't talk to her nearly as often as I would like to. It was so nice to hear her voice, and catch up on what is going on in her life. She has a lot to deal with right now--heavy responsibility with their business, and her almost 94-year-old mother-in-law who has always had a very colorful character, and that is still true today.  Caregiver challenges, keeping everyone happy challenges, just lots of challenges.  She is strong and amazing, and I love her. It was really nice to chat with her.

9. My students then surprised me with a lovely card, a beautiful flower, and a birthday song that started out sounding lovely and ended...rather badly. But on purpose (they are, after all, heavy on the musical talent)--the card required it.  I will take a picture of the flower, and scan the card...so check back because I left them in my office to enjoy tomorrow, so I don't have them at home to add to this post right now.

Flower my students gave to me, in front of the ranat ek on the front desk.

10. I solved a mystery at work...and I like solving mysteries. I was cataloguing a DVD (about talking drums of Ghana, if you must know) and decided to put it at ML 350, with African music. When I put the call number in the shelf list, there was this random ML 350 .H65 that was about recorders, the instrument. With all these African music books around it. Weird. So I went to look on the shelf...no book. So I showed it to Janet, and she pointed out that in the 050 field (sorry if I am losing anyone here; it all makes sense to me) it said ML 935. So...I went and looked at ML 935 .H65 and found there a book with that number only with 1977 as the date. Took it back to the computer...it was, of course, a different edition of the book. The problem one was 1962. So, I looked in the M's for both 350 and 935. Not there. But in the MT's, there it was at MT 350 . H65. And you know what...that is actually a recorder number, if the book were a method book. Which it wasn't. But, I found it, so I could fix it to ML 935 .H65 1962. So, that was fun!  Maybe not your idea of fun, but mystery solved...makes it fun for me!

11. I came home, and my husband had made lasagna for dinner, and then he made a salad to go with it. And all I had to do was eat it. That was very nice!

12. Janet gave me tickets to go to the MoTab Christmas concert tomorrow night. She is a soprano in the choir. I get to take three people with me tomorrow night and enjoy the show, so my birthday celebration, having started a day early, will also continue for an extra day. Here is the preview picture from a rehearsal:

Alfie Boe (English tenor) and the back of Mack Wilberg's head. I get to help Mack with finding music from time to time. And I don't hold it against him that he cuffed Nancy in the back of the head (accidentally) at a MoTab Concert back in the day when he was just Mack and not THE Mack Wilberg.

13. One more, for a baker's dozen: 22 people wished me happy birthday on Facebook, even though I don't have my birthday listed, but a few of my children posted like as soon as it was midnight (they are all a bunch of night owl insomniacs, but I love them anyway!), one person tagged onto someone else's post, and one person sent me a message: my roommate from seriously 38 years ago. That number blows my mind--it seems like yesterday, not nearly 4 decades! She wrote:

Happy Birthday, Myrna!!! Hope you had a great day. Wishing you all the best in the coming year, my friend.
Why have I always thought your birthday was in January? Hmmmmm...
I cherish the memories of fun times with you as young girls in Provo. You will always, always have a very special spot in my heart.
I love you, Myrna.
Renée

So, all in all, quite a good day, this 12-12-12!