But I don’t care.

Today is my birthday and my glass is half full.

Yesterday I was on Lexington Avenue . I was going to buy a broom. My phone rang and it was Julie. “What are you doing?”

We got together, walked around the city and had dinner at a diner ($5 wines). That made me so happy.

This morning it’s up to Steph’s.

We’re going out to a fabulous dinner. There’s no one I’d rather go out with than her husband Terry. He’s a man that knows how to party.

I’m sleeping over with a big fat dog in my bed.

AND THEN TOMORROW WE’RE GOING TO THE JERRY SPRINGER SHOW!

I’m going back and forth about what to wear because they have very strict rules on dress. It’s a very classy show, you know.

1. No jeans

2. no tee shirts

3. no logos on clothing.

I’m in a dither. I was going to wear my Dukakis ’88 sweat shirt but I think that may be a no no.

Anyway it’ll be great.

Most people feel that New Years Day ends the holiday season but it never has for me.

There was Christmas (interestingly my mother kept a kosher home but we never celebrated Hannukah), New Years, my birthday, in later years my anniversary and Valentine’s day.

Which of these things is not like the others?

Anyway I still feel happy. There’s Jerry ( I call him Jerry) and then Ann Leary’s reading of her new book “The Good House”.

“Why this?” you ask? It has to do with how I feel about books. My love of reading was a personal gift from my father.  Every time I pick up a good book I feel like it’s a kiss from him.

I love a book that draws you in immediately and holds on to you to the end. That’s how Ann writes.

Actually I bought Ann’s first book at one of Julie’s readings because I was so grateful to her for being so kind to my niece. I sat in a chair in the bookstore and started to read it and I couldn’t put it down.

Now I read everything Ann writes and when I see her I feel a flash of annoyance because she isn’t sitting at home working on her next book so I can get another kiss from my father.