I Keep Getting Older

Three days straight of celebration. Or selfabration (I just made this word up and I'm not sure I like how it sounds or what it means). Friday was nice. Elkeer made me lunch, I got a massage, Marianne made dinner, and then took me out for drinks. The "mystery friends" turned out to be my pastor and his wife, Brandon and Kirsten. We had a great time catching up with them in the new place they're renting in my old Studio City neighborhood. Really fantastic couple. Kirsten recently started an incredible non-profit called Raven and Lily (www.ravenandlily.com) and I am really excited about what she's doing, so check out the website.

Last night a bunch of my favorite people joined me at the Babbes Uniplex (my friend Thom has a groovy movie theater in his backyard) for a screening of Broadcast News, one of the best films ever. James L. Brooks...amazing. That movie still holds up more than 20 years later. After the flick, we went over to Barone's, my favorite place for pizza. It's an old school italian restaurant and most of the people there are older folk, many who look like they belong in an episode of the Sopranos. Much to my delight, they had a singer who was channeling Dean Martin. He even used an unlit cigarette as a prop and would occasionnally fake smoke it and tap non-existent ashes into his coat pocket. Awesome. The music got me going and I had to dance, so my friend Leah joined me on the dance floor. I swear all eyes were on us and I know what most of those old people were thinking: "Are those girls together?" Frankly, I was enjoying myself too much to care and after a couple of minutes, two little boys joined in and later, some elderly couples. We got things movin'. Everybody in the place sang with the vocalist on "That's Amore". Most of all, I loved that all of those people gathered to spend time with me for my birthday. Nice. And everyone LOOOOOVED the pizza as well as the atmosphere. My individual-sized pizza was a lot smaller than I expected, so as soon as they put the first one down in front of me I said, "Please bring me another one just like it." It was my birthday, for the love of Mike. It was worth every bite, although I paid for it with a pizza hangover this morning.

Today my my mom came up to spend some time with me, so we went to church, had lunch, and wandered around the Museum of Crafts and Folk Art. They had a photography exhibit on modern day Iran and an exhibit on 200 years of black paper dolls. They had some good documentary recommendations on Iran - Bam 6.6 and Generation Iran. Hoping to catch them on netflix.

Yes, this post isn't particularly well-written or inspired, but I'm tired after three days of festivities. I'm ready to get back to work. Can you believe it?