Happy Birthday to me.

55. Yikes. Must be some kind of cosmic error. Some miscalculation happened along the way. But birthdays don't lie, and they are what they are. And 55 is what I am. Oh goodie.

Phone calls came today from my Aunt Dolly, and my friend G up on L.I., and young C as soon as she got out of school this afternoon. Funny story about my Aunt Dolly's call... she was telling me about her new mailman, whom she doesn't like. She called him a "shrimp," which is funny because my aunt is barely five feet tall and weighs about 95 pounds. (Who's calling who a shrimp?)

She was trying to mail me a birthday card, but the mailman never took it out of her mailbox (which her old mailman always did). She no longer drives, so she can't get to the post office, and the Postal Powers That Be have removed all of the free-standing mailboxes from her neighborhood. So, unless her mailman takes her mail, or someone goes to the post office for her, the mail just doesn't leave her house. So my birthday card is still there, waiting to be mailed, which is why she's upset with the mailman.

My sister is also upset... with me.... because I wrote about my feelings in here. She had asked me not to write about her business, which I didn't, and I never have. I've written about my own. And forgive me, but I thought what was happening with my mother, as told to me, was my business. As of today, I'm out of the loop about what's going on with my mother. Which brings me right back to where I was last week, before I heard about any of this.... which is right where I'm used to being, so it shouldn't matter much.

No matter what happens in this world, life goes on in a sensible way. I keep repeating that phrase... it's a good one.