I just quickly thought through all of my years, as to where I was living and what was going on at the time of my birthday. Mine were probably all very nice, but being only ten days before Christmas, the memories tend to be overshadowed by that. But I found two unusual and significant ones that I'd actually forgotten about in this context, so here they are:
1 - On December 15, 1979, a Saturday morning, I flew out of LA, changed planes in Houston, and landed in Cancún that evening. I was joining my friends on their sailboat to spend an open-ended amount of time as a crew member. (They had sailed out of LA the year before and had come up through the Panama Canal and were due to arrive in the Yucatan that week.) I had left my job for the trip, but I always knew I could go back (those were the days!), which is what I eventually did after several months. Anyhoo, after arriving at the Cancún airport, I was walking toward the exits when I heard some commotion behind me. I sat and waited and watched as the President of Mexico, who had just landed, walked right in front of me surrounded by his military escorts. That was a fun welcome. That night I stayed in a small but - in retrospect - charming little hotel in downtown Cancún that night (the likes of which probably doesn't even exist anymore), and took a 15-minute puddle-jumper airplane ride across the channel to Cozumel the next day. I'm sure we celebrated on the boat once we were all together, but I'd have to do some more digging through the memory banks.
2 - December 15, 1989 was my first birthday upon moving from LA to Danbury. About a dozen of us in our company had made the move, and during that year I'd had great fun hanging out with several of the others through our house-hunting trips and in getting settled into the area. Being a Friday, my 40th birthday was a great excuse for us to party it up, and we ate at some jernt, followed by a long night of partying at my place. And wouldn't you know, it was the first night of sn*w that season, so a few of the folks from LA were seeing their first one ever. It was just a fun and rather significant party night.
