Last night I had a dream that I was driving down a coastal highway with someone I’ve never seen before in real life. We were driving a minivan, a Volkswagon bus or something like that. The wind was blowing really hard (as it had been for real yesterday evening) and we could feel it hit the van as we drove down the highway. Up ahead the ocean surged over the road and was flooding everything. There were cars floating. It was too late to stop and we drove right into disaster. Our van floated out to sea. I was very afraid and so was the person driving the vehicle. I think there may have been children in the car too. But, somehow, we floated back to shore and we were o.k. Scared to death, but o.k.

I couldn’t believe it when I woke up this morning and saw that there had been a tsunami in Japan. The footage of it is absolutely devastating. PLEASE consider donating to the Red Cross to help with relief over there. As you know, the news just keeps getting worse.

I am also very sad to see that, while not as horrible as Japan, our West Coast is getting battered too. Santa Cruz, a town very near to my heart, has had lots of damage as well. Not good.

Today is my 42nd birthday. It’s been a good day for me, personally. But also not so good with all of the troubling news in the world.

One of my favorite traditions the past few year has been my birthday limerick from the mister. For some reason a few years ago he woke up with the amazing talent of being able to come up with limericks in his head, so he writes me one on my birthday. It started with my 40th. When I was leaving for work he was working on it so I’ll post it here when he’s finished.

Finally, another silly tradition is to take a self portrait on my birthday. So here it is.