Because I've never been a shrinking violet about my birthday, many of you know that the one coming up is my "golden." I was born on the 57th day of the 57th year of the 20th century and I will be turning 57. And because we here at druid labs hardly need any excuse to celebrate, I decided that this arbitrary event might be a nice time for all us siblings to party together. After all, they were born in '55 and '59, and that's how old they'll be (reversed).

To that end I invited my brother and sisters to brainstorm about a family gathering. We tossed around the idea of going overseas, of renting a villa on an island somewhere, of a dude ranch, you name it. My sisters thought they'd like to do an Alaska cruise, so as not to have to do anything they didn't want to (like cooking or cleaning up after ourselves). And while "cruise" is nowhere on my list of things to do, well, to be with my family, I'd go anywhere. My sisters and I were quite excited and spent a lot of time planning on when we could accomplish this because my brother's son is still in grade school.

Then my brother started backpedaling as usual, and not only did our plans fall apart, but I am no longer speaking to him by my choice. He said he doesn't want to be around me and I'll grant him his wish. Anyway I needed to be done with his knack for hijacking every family affair, which we always capitulated to, because we wanted the whole family to be together. I'm done with that. 

So what started out as a way for me to celebrate a special day turned into a family breaker. I'm even taking the blame for it. Classic middle child stuff.

What was to be a joy-filled event is now just a fading dream. I don't ask for much from anyone and least of all from my family. I guess you get what you ask for.

So woo hoo! 57 cubed! I'm sure hobbitt and I will find a way to make it noteworthy, somehow.

/pity party