October

has flown yet again...and so usually I would be sad. It is hard to be sad though, even though I turn 40 tomorrow. Something really cool and amazing and wonderful happened to me at work this week. On Monday a mom came up to me said handed me a card, saying, "Happy birthday!" I waited until after storytime to open it and it was a cute card with a typed message inside that read, "Ask the bones. It might be a folktale that you're turning 40." I figured it meant ask the bones if you feel old, that kind of thing. It was cute! I thanked the mom when I saw her. It was very sweet!

Then on Tuesday my friend gave me a card and said that a little boy gave it to her to give to me. I opened it up. It was the same kind of card, with a message, typed, like the other. This one read, "La Hija at Carnegie Hall. It's easy listening." I was puzzled and told my friend about yesterday's card. I was really confused! That night my other friend was shelving books and came out of the stacks with the book Ask the Bones. Around the book there was a rubber band and banded to the book was an envelope with 40 little skulls inside and a note that said, "No bones about it, you are turning 40!"

It was so so so cool! And then I realized that I had to decode the "La Hija at Carnegie Hall" message. After I texted my dear friend Madonna and asked her what hija meant and learned it meant "daughter" I knew that The Daughter at Carneige Hall could mean no one else but Liza Minnelli. Sure enough, there was an evelope banded to Liza at Carnegie Hall on cd. This envelope had 40 bells in it and said, "Ring them bells! You're turning 40!"

THEN a mom came up to me later and gave me the same kind of card that said, "Tears and tantrums at 40..." so I found THAT book and there I found 4 packages of 10 Halloween tissues!

AND THEN today three little girls gave me a card that said, "One eyes, two eyes, forty eyes" and so I looked up the book One Eye! Two Eyes! Three Eyes! and THERE was an envelope that said, "All eyes can see that you're turing 40! It's not Grimm (the book is by the Brothers Grimm) Happy birthday!"

I am just so overwhelmed with love and gratitude. I have no idea exactly who it is but I know it is a group of wonderful moms. I am just so touched and humbled. I wish there was a way to pay them all back. I am just totally, utterly blown away.