River: Today is Colleen's Birthday

Today is Colleen's birthday, the second since she died. She would have been 71 years old.

Our birthdays are three days apart, and several other friends also had birthdays in March. (Not to mention our daughter, E.) When we were living in San Jose, we'd celebrate with a huge open-house/potluck party. We called it the "It's Green" party because Colleen's birthday is the day before Saint Patrick's Day. We'd provide corned beef and cabbage, and a case of Green Rooster beer. Colleen never managed to rebuild her social circle in Seattle, so birthday parties have been low-key family things.

My birthday was Monday, but there was so much going on that we decided to push the celebration out to today. Makes things kind of weird, and bitter-sweet.

Thankful Thursday

Today I am grateful for...

• Memories of Colleen.
• The GIMP (Gnu Image Manipulation Program), which I am still not particularly competent with, but I know enough to get by. I use it mainly for making icons and cropping photos.
• A credit card with a high enough limit to handle several unscheduled large bills in a row. But can I please have a couple of months to catch up?
• The cats.