Happy Birthday to me!!!

Whoo Hoo 38!! Ok now that I got that out of the way, let me break down my awesome day for you, Mig style. (If you cry, you may want a kleenex before proceeding.) My excitement about Facebook was restored slightly when I received a veritable cornucopia of birthday wishes from good friends, old friends and strangers alike. While I am not super keen on birthdays as a whole, this did brighten my day quite a bit to feel the love from everyone. After getting off work I went to have birthday dinner with my b/f Richard, his sister Mary and her b/f James. Lobstefest at Red Lobster anyone?? The waitress was wonderful and promised not to round up everyone to sing happy birthday which was in and of itself, pretty close to the best present I got all day. Nothing worse than a group of tone deaf teenagers thinking that because they saw an episode of Glee, that they can carry on a stellar performance of such a droll song. But as always, the food was amazing and we all had to be rolled out the door when we left. *BURP*

Just to be tricky I am going to rewind the night a little bit and go back to just before leaving for dinner. Richard brought home a new wine to try, HRM Rex-Goliath. It is a multiple gold medal winning California Chardonnay. It says hints of pineapple but I didn't get that from it, aside from a general citrus taste. It was a sweeter Chardonnay so it was a little different but it was new and worth drinking especially if you like a sweeter Chard. Anyhow, it was a quick couple glasses and then on to the present portion of the evening.

My gift was in a big bad with orange and green tissue. The homage to Halloween was exciting. Bags are by far the best way to wrap presents for adults. Only small children should receive any joy from tearing open wrapping paper, and only for small children should we, as adults, invest the time to wrap anything in paper. I pulled out the tissue and saw it was a massive frame, but wasn't sure what else it was. As I turned the frame around it was a really cool wooden frame, made from possibly pieces of old railroad tie or something of that nature. But even better than this cool frame, was the fact that it had a picture I had taken of a dragonfly in it. Fade to black and drop the curtain on this production for an intermission. Please get your snacks and your kleenex ready for the next act.

So you are probably thinking, why of all things, would a dragonfly be so cool?? Well my little blog readers, here is a story that only Richard and I know until this point. As some of you already know, my mother passed away in September of 2009. She and I always had a strong connection and besides what son and mother don't have some sort of extra special relationship. Anyways, after she passed away, I of course had sad moments and lots of thinking time where you dwell on things and get yourself down, and that is when I started noticing that every time I felt bad, I saw dragonflies. Now I have lived in Texas for over about 5 years now and aside from the occasional sighting, dragonflies were not something that were just always around.

It didn't matter where I was, in the backyard, out driving for work, out walking, or even coming out of a store. If I had thought about Mom, there they were. I wrote it off as a weird coincidence for longer than I probably should have, but then had the realization when I realized how much it lifted my spirits. So I really noticed them in my backyard, I was still a smoker back then so I spent a lot of time out there puffing away, and after few days I noticed that there was this one dragonfly in particular that "hung out" a lot as opposed to just doing the flyby that the rest seemed to do. It would fly right in front of me and would land on a stick that I had tied a tiny tree to for support from the nice Texas wind. This stick had just the tiniest of points on the top of it and I can't imagine much of anything being able to land and sit on it, but this dragonfly did all the time.

One day as my little dragonfly friend was sitting so nicely on the stick I got the idea that I should get the camera and take a picture of it for sentimental reasons. Now, until now, the little guy never let you get close to it at all. Even the slightest movement would send it flying away, only to return as soon as everything stopped again. Now, why I thought I would be able to get a good picture of it is beyond me. But to my surprise as I came out with the camera, it didn't move at all. I slowly moved towards it and still no movement. I was really amazed and as I got super close and the camera made all its whirring noises and clicks, the dragonfly sat ever patiently on its little perch. I got a couple blurry shots and then one really good one and as if it knew I got what I needed, it flew away.

I haven't really talked about this before to anyone except Richard, because saying your dead mother is sending you dragonflies when you are sad, seems a little crazy. I have had the pictures sitting on the camera the whole time, and never did anything with them. I think deep down I wasn't sure if I wanted to actually see it because it was going to be a reminder of what I had lost so it kind of went out of sight, out of mind. But when I opened that present and saw my picture, I have to admit, I felt like I had just gotten a big mom hug. It reminded me in an instant of all the good memories and none of the bad ones. It was the most amazing gift I have ever received on so many levels. Not the least of which is having an amazing guy who remembered something I had tucked away and made it even more special for me than it had been before.

Ok, in closing I will try and lift the mood of this post slightly by saying, thank you for reading this and for allowing me to share this little story with you. Hopefully those of you out there who may have lost someone very important to you may find yourself looking around for your own little signs that your loved one is still with you. Just remember, if you are out walking and you see a dragonfly, say hi to Mom for me, I can only imagine shes got lots of places to see and all the time now to see it in. I love you mom!!

Thanks again everyone for sharing this with me. And a special thanks to Richard, I couldn't ask for a better person to share this life with.