It Was Amazing

Turning 40 was so fantastic I think I'll do it again next year!

We had a benefit concert for hurricane relief at church last night and imported three wonderful singers from Baton Rouge. The concert was so amazing: a happy, warm, mid-winter delight. People were just grinning from ear to ear, and nobody wanted to leave the reception, where we chowed on jambalya, gumbo, and a cake with my baby picture on it. We were hoping for about 50 people, and the church was packed with close to 200. My own group, Sweet the Sound, was described as "breathtaking" and the reporter said that the hair stood up on the back of her neck when we began our first song. So that's thrilling, and we're making our first CD in late January/February.

We raised $3,500 more for hurricane relief and had a blast doing it. I had dreamed of a birthday celebration that could be philanthropic, cultural, and involve both church and friends, and this fit the bill perfectly. Some of us came back to the house for champagne and I even got some sleep before leading this morning's very emotional service honoring the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr. A woman who came to last night's concert with her husband came back for church in the morning and thanked me for one of the most wonderful weekends of her life. All this with big tears in the eyes. So hey, when I'm in one of my inevitable depressions this summer, that's a memory to hold close.

Mom and sis helped me take down all my Christmas decorations this afternoon, and the Lousiana gals came over and I made an impromptu dinner that turned out to be a wonderful feast. I'm a little amazed because I'm usually a very uptight hostess worrying that dinner will suck, running out to shop at several different stores and planning recipes and cleaning days in advance. Tonight I just decided to start cooking with what I had in the fridge and didn't want to have go to waste while I'm in Spain for twelve days. So I threw together a kind of Cuban stew with pork, roman beans, sweet potatoes, green peppers and onion, with a spicy marinade I love. I made Spanish rice and skillet corn bread and my sister made sauteed cabbage, and we drank wine and had delicious dessert of vanilla ice cream drizzled with maple syrup and fresh fruit.

Mom and sis are still here padding around in the kitchen cleaning up, and Gordon the dog is here, too. It's very, very good. We laughed so hard at dinner our eyes popped out.

Mom gave me very grown up diamond earrings. They are the prettiest white gold small horseshoe shaped hoops with tiny diamonds all down the front. I feel so elegant in them.

I realize this isn't an interesting or eloquent post and I apologize, but it's been an incredible season, actually, leading up to all of this. The summer was overly busy, and with the fall came beginning a doctoral program, burying my uncle, traveling to Lousiana, hosting Thanksgiving, dealing with a very busy Christmas season, etc.

I'm wiped out. Will try to be thoughtful later.