But she won't discover that it's him till chapter three!

Okay, the classic BIRTHDAY post!!!!!!!! Yay! This year, I've decided my list will include books throughout the years--I'm shooting for some from those actual years, but I may need to fudge some. However, from years 5 and up is pretty darned accurate.

1) Peter Rabbit
2) Christian Mother Goose
3) Green Eggs and Ham
4) The Berenstein Bears and Too Much TV
5) Wet Grass (one story I remember reading for myself in Kindergarten)
6) The Baby-sitters Club--Claudia and the Phantom Phone Caller (my first chapter book!)
7) The Story of Helen Keller
8) Ramona Forever
9) Anne of Green Gables
10) Little Women
11) Big Guy and Little Women (quite funny as I recall)
12) The President's Daughter
13) A Midsummer Night's Dream
14) Gone With the Wind
15) Death on the Nile
16) Pride and Prejudice
17) The Iliad
18) Macbeth
19) Medea
20) Jane Eyre
21) Roughing It
22) Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (the British version!)
23) To the Lighthouse
24) Cheaper by the Dozen
25) Murder on the Orient Express
26) Frankenstein
27) (One I'd like to read this year) The Turn of the Screw

The title comes from the song "Belle" from Beauty and the Beast. Hopefully my friends lunch at Olive Garden and then attending Bridge to Terabithia with a potential visit to the Nevada Art Museum for a cool exhibit tomorrow will make for a fun celebration. Happy birthday to me . . .

Those were the good old days

I got to sing last night. It made me happy. I like singing. It was for our church Valentine's Banquet. The theme was "Sweetheart Salute to Veteren's". I was in a trio that sang "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy". I sang "Sentimental Journey" on my own.

Why wasn't I born in 1935 again?

The song title is the same as the title of this post. It's from Damn Yankees.

Shaking the Blues Away

I understand that part of my moodiness of late is due to many circumstances; the illness that wanted to take me over, my slight accident (hitting the wall of the highway thanks to an unforseen patch of ice--thank goodness it was a day of bad snow so I was driving like an overcautious granny anyway), the fight, our testing fiasco, shows, etc. Yes circumstantial annoyances have certainly added to my moodiness. It drives me insane, but I'm trying to find that optimism I've hidden so well so I can move on in life.

It's tough.

I am not a fan of depression, wallowing, winter, and such so this ridiculous pesky mood that won't shake is really driving me nuts. Anyone have a good antidote for the blues? None of mine seem to be working, and I'm getting desperate. Okay, maybe not desperate, but irritated enough to truly want a way out of it (I'm an actress, and our emotions always seem to be amplified by 20).

So I'll listen very carefully to Irving Berlin's "Shaking the Blues Away" (which Ann Miller sang in the wonderfully fun Easter Parade) to see if one of America's most prolific songwriters has any good advice for me to follow in my quest to rid myself of the icky melancholy.