Just after 1am, upon closing up shop and heading to bed, my eyes are drawn to the glint of Gilded Baby (see photo above).
The following yearly ritual ensues:
smile at Gilded Baby
gingerly touch Gilded Baby's head
pick up Gilded Baby, and read the engraved pedestal base...
1:01am, May 22 1978, 21 inches, 7 lbs 7 oz.

Every year on this day, I can count on Mom's "oral recitation" of the details of my birth...how the trees were bare when she went in and leafy when she came out, how the doctor seemed disgruntled to be missing the Stanley Cup game, and how, "true to my nature", I arrived not a second early. Despite knowing the story verbatim, i still am enchanted with it, still find myself going, "yeah, and then what happens?"
I wonder do we all have that ego-centric curiosity about our own birth story? True stories that involve us in situations beyond our conscious memory do seem to bring an irresistible satisfaction...like long lost socks, missing puzzle pieces, etc.

Thanks again, Gilded Baby...till next year!

Update time!
To those who were curious about why I cancelled out of the Expo, here's a picture clue:

...Did you guess?

That's me and me brudder! My big brother flew in from the Left coast that weekend (a surprise to my folks)...rest-assured anyone who was puzzling over my "unexpected life event"-no worries!!
Our visits are so rare that there's nothing that would make me miss one...this visit was painfully short, so I'm now in the market for air tix to B.C...TIPS ON SEAT SALES ANYONE?

So, that's the "brother", let's move on to the "mother"!
I'll be honoring mine tomorrow with the usual brunch and gifts, but I also want to shout out Happy Mother's Day here, too, since my business owes so much to this wonder-woman. Recently in a mad rush to meet deadlines, I asked mom what, of all the little jobs I ask her to do for me, was her favorite one. Without hesitation, she replied, "I like watching Everybody Loves Raymond". This stopped me in my tracks and both of us burst out laughing- nothing like foolishness to ease tension!

Now for the "Other":
Winners of the Birthday draw have all confirmed...Congrats go out to Janet G., Shauna W. and Stephanie W...each one a happy "I-NEVER-WIN-CONTESTS" recipient of a treehugger collection flower necklace!
April (tax-filing time)is past, and I want to recommend celebrating the event with the loosely related movie "Stranger than Fiction." Thanks to Brother Rich, I rented this and LOVED it- Will Ferrell is beautiful in it and the story is just so great.
Brand new discovery: Dandelions are fascinating! See below the pic I took a couple days ago while picking flowers for the press...I had no idea there were all those curly-cues, did you??


To anyone in the "Mothering" field, Happy Mother's Day! This is the planet's most important work, no questions.
oh...and, mom? I like watching Everybody Loves Raymond, too!

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