Today I am 59. What a useless birthday. I'm actually looking forward to next year already. That's a milestone deserving big celebrations, fancy expensive gifts (just setting expectations here), a trip abroad to commemorate the occasion (can you spell Mauritius, boys and girls?), a birthday blowout with all my rowdy friends in Las Vegas similar to one we had for my 55th birthday. Next year won't be bad at all.
So what's 59 besides a prime number? Nothing. Well, except that gaining a year is better than not being around to have one, I suppose. And as a friend of mine just wrote, 59 in most cases is better than 95. Plus I'm not in bad health, I've got a new house, I'm living on a golf course, my mom's still alive and still putts better than I do, my daughter's doing well. My wife looks like she's 47 -- oooh, if she reads this, I really meant 39, sweetie. That is both good news and bad, by the way. I like that she looks so young; why can't I be that lucky?
One thing I have noticed over the last few birthdays: I used to say that I had no regrets -- now I have lots. I wish I had treated some people better; you know who you are. I wish I'd gone to work for a different company right from the start, but my company has done extremely all right by me, I have to admit. I wish I'd paid more attention to my daughter's growing up because those memories I do have are sustaining. I wish I hadn't thrown some things away; I wish I'd thrown away some things I've kept.
All in all though, not bad.
I've said before, how did a kid that grew up in a corn field ever get to do the things that I've gotten to do or go to the places I've been? I've been extremely lucky on that count. It's a great treat to look at our travel pictures from around the world.
It all started with fly-in fishing trips to Canada with my dad.
Mauritius is still the most special place for me. We loved our trips to Thailand too. Southern Italy was wonderful and seeing Pompeii and Herculaneum fulfilled a dream. Amsterdam was exciting and fun. St. Petersburg had the most beautiful palaces. London is one of the best cities to walk around in. The Pyramids and the Sphinx were both better and not as good as I'd imagined.
Singapore is nice but sterile. Hong Kong is crazy and dirty and loud and smelly and vibrant. I got to fly in to Hong Kong at the old airport ... the one where you fly between (literally) apartment buildings to land.
I'll never forget the Pushkin Museum. We're walking around Moscow one day and my someday-to-be wife says, "Oh, here's Pushkin Museum. I've not been there in years." I asked, "What's there?" "They have impressionist art." "Oh, OK. (hesitation) Let's go." And then we get in there and there's a FLOOR of impressionist art. We walked and looked until I just couldn't do it anymore. It was the first time I understood why they make such a fuss about Picasso.
And the first ballet I ever saw was in Kremlin Palace Theater in Moscow. And I've see ballets in both the Bolshoi and the Marinski theaters as well. I've been inside the Kremlin.
Can't forget Kazakhstan ... the land of sand and a great experience. Who else do you know that's been there? AndI met a certain beautiful, Russian dancer there.
And then there are the garden spots: Lagos, Nigeria; Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea; Caracas and Maracaibo, Venezuela; Bogota, Colombia; Jakarta, Indonesia. Sort of a coin toss as to which was the most dangerous. Papua New Guinea was the most beautiful. Bogota had the most friendly and happy people ... and the most guns. Venezuela had the prettiest girls, although it was a tough choice between there and Bogota. Jarkarta was fun back in the day. The most polite people live there.
Australia is caught in a time warp of about 1960s US. That's good news and bad. Fremantle and Surfers' Paradise were fabulous.
Mexico with friends many years ago was great ... and got me started windsurfing. The volleyball there on another trip was really fun (my team beat the instructors' team).
Which brings me to Urkraine of all places, which actually had even better beach volleyball (strangely enough), but I was too old to enjoy it.
And speaking of windsurfing: Aruba -- zowie zowie.
And speaking Caribbean, St. Lucia for a honeymoon ... and rain rain rain.
Turkey was OK, but I liked Egypt better. Cyprus was OK, but I liked Egypt better too.
And after that long list, I'm probably still leaving out places and certainly leaving out lots of memorable experiences. Amazing.
59 years -- Maybe 59 is OK.
1 comment:
Great post. Makes me, at 37, start looking around and trying to appreciate what might otherwise slip by unnoticed.
And I know it doesn't count as a globe-trotting destination, but you must add Salt Point's crashing shores & pygmy forest, Northstar's oh-my-god-so-blue sky, and the window to the Milky Way in Tuolome Meadows high up in the sky and beyond the fray of Yosemite.
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