before we get on to the more personal details of my existence, here's a quick bit of business:
SHOW ANNOUNCEMENT!
Don't forget! This Thursday night (September 22), at 8 P.M., at the Pioneer Arts Center of Easthampton, I will be playing the Singers in the Round series with Teresa Storch and Stephanie Marshall! Admission is only $5 in advance and $7 at the door. It promises to be a fantastic evening of music and fun! (Also, it's my official birthday celebration- after the show, we shall adjourn to some fine drinking and eating establishment, such as Packard's!)
So this is it. Tomorrow is my 27th birthday. And I am, traditionally, one of those annoying people who hates my birthday. It was always a great concern to my family, especially my mother, who took great pains to get me wonderful, thoughtful gifts, however little money we had. Once, I even refused to open my presents for days.
Over the years, I learned to humor the people who loved me, smiling and accepting gifts, while I still believed that I didn't deserve either the gifts themselves or the love that prompted the giving.
Not even my first fight with cancer let me accept it. That was a very surreal time in my life, and when it was all over, I'd shed so many layers of skin and blood and siickness that I felt almost brand new to the world. I'd lost nearly all the friends I'd had, and my family, for the most part, was far away.
After a year of re-building my entire life, and making wonderful new friends, I was struck down yet again. Another round with cancer, this one packed with the upper-cut of a stem cell transplant, and I was exhausted. After 6 months' remission, it was my 26th birthday. My wonderful friends put not one, but two fabulous festivites together for me. And it only took me 26 birthdays to realize that my birthday wasn't even necessarily about me-- i was about the people who loved me, a celebration of them. And who am I to question how amazing they are? To deny my birthday was to deny their love, and I could never, ever turn away from that.
So this year, come celebrate yourselves with me. The official show and Packard's festivity is Thursday. And, of course, we have all weekend, and any other day, in fact, to celebrate us.
And, yes, I start treatment next Monday. So let's make this weekend worth it.
Happy birthday to me.
