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Happy Birthday To Me

09, originally uploaded by palm0014.

The beauty of turning thirty is to look at what you have accomplished until this point in life. I’ll be honest with you, I think it started to hit me hard a few months ago and I got trapped in the regular “OH LORD, WHAT AM I DOING WITH MY LIFE?!” thoughts…

But then I took a different perspective on the whole 1/3 of my life gone and looked back at everything I have accomplished and I’m proud of it. I’ve come a long way, whether it be in the education of my mind, musical ability, entertaining the masses, visiting the world…it’s only the first 30 years of my life and when you think of it, we’re all kids for the first half of it and so it’s only been for the past 15 years that we’ve all really gone out and done something on our own. From those last fifteen years, we’re stumbling along wondering how to get through it and wondering if you should take the path well traveled (arguably society’s foray into having a steady income and living a predictable life with a few odd adventures here and there) or the one less traveled where we seek out adventure first and predictability second.

Uncle Gerry gave me a letter which has stuck to me over all these years. He gave it to me at what can only be called one of the more formative periods of one’s life; the week before leaving your home to go to school in a big city. This letter outlined how no path is wrong, but it’s about finding out what’s the right one for you to travel on. It was inspiring to read this as I started out on a path that is still arguably society’s path and wondered if I would enjoy it or not.

I look forward to the next 2/3 of my life and all the wonders that lie within them. This is a crucial time for me to ramp up my explorations into literature, education, music, travel and friendships. It is the calm before the storm which will eventually come to me in the form of family of my own one day and the subsequent adventure that ensues from that path.

I am proud of everything I have accomplished up until this point and I embrace the turning of thirty years. Bring on all the laughter and the jests of getting old! I can’t wait. I’m in better shape than I have ever been, both physically and mentally and I have a ‘joie du vivre’. There isn’t anything stopping this train of rock n’ roll, existentialism and the ever longing questions of how the heck they get the caramel in the Caramilk bar.

* Can I point out that it’s great to see that I had an Amazing Spider-Man shirt back in 1982 when this photo was taken?

* I’m gone to Gaspe for the week. I’ll update the blog whenever possible.

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Trips

Day 2 – Gaspe Trip 2008 August 3



DSC00818, originally uploaded by palm0014.

*note my attentive audience*

Well, August 3rd turned out to be my birthday and it was a miserable rotten weather day. I had high ambitions to go out biking, but alas, it was not meant to be.

We made the best of it and played some euchre during the day, and I organized my guitar songs so I could perform that night for everyone. During the day, Uncle Greg explained some key concepts of photography to be (f-stops, zooming, etc.) and while I can say that I can’t remember a thing he told me from that day, it made me think that I should pick up that amateur photography book that Mike has and try his SLR camera out sometime. We tried to snap a shot of a falling raindrop without much success.

I had a lovely birthday dinner consisting of fried bologna. The joke of the night was when Dad had asked for a few pieces to be made extra crispy (just the way he likes it!) and then Aunt Mariette picked the pieces up for herself not knowing that Dad wanted them! There were some good laughs at that.

I ended up receiving an excellent orange cake (my fave! Vero take note!) and everyone devoured it. I also managed to get some excellent gifts from my parents…some fishing tackle and they wiped the debt I owed them over some time. It was a very appreciated gift although I must admit that part of says “Can I not save enough money to even pay back my own parents?!” What kind of person am I?
The most unexpected gift was in the form of my Palmer Platter t-shirt…a one of a kind that Dad was using as his paint shirt! They managed to get the paint out of it and it looks brand new! I was excited to hear this as I didn’t even realize I had left it at home and Dad thought it was an old t-shirt that can be used for other means!

The night moved along and I played guitar for a few hours trying to sing the songs that everyone knew. Aunt Lois sure didn’t care for anything she didn’t like and tried to flip my song book pages while I was in the middle of the song! But she turned out to be an excellent singing partner along with Mom for most tunes.

When I stopped playing I managed to make it back to the table and realized that Dad had had his fair share of wine! I didn’t even realize what was going on behind me but sure enough, Uncle Fred’s wine was having effect on a few people that night. It was quite funny and I’m glad that Dad emerged unscathed the next morning. I also emerged unscathed after having a great slumber inside the trailer for the night. Thanks to all for the excellent 30th birthday party!