Starting the countdown

Man... I haven't done this for *years*..!!!  But here it goes:

There are 190 (shopping) days left until my birthday!!!

I used to do this every year until sometime in my late twenties...  All it ever got me really was a bunch of hugs and love, which is what I was hoping for nevertheless... 

One of the best years was probably that surprise birthday party my Retix friends/co-workers gave me after I drove everyone insane through my humble self-advertising...  back in the 90's when I lived in L.A. the first time.  I heard that even a year later my birthday was still announced over the loudspeaker, after I was long gone...

Ah, the memories of Retix...  Geeks are really the best people to have as co-workers.  For an office-setting, that *had* to be the most fun I had working anywhere...  I mean, where else would the department head tell you flat out that the reason you were hired was your looks, and that:  "how often would we get a chance to work with an ex-Hawaiian Tropic girl?"  I should have probably cared more one way or the other about this matter-of-fact statement, but the "California" salary I was offered impressed me enough and I had zero other choices available at the time.

Retix, believe it or not, was probably the best work experience I ever had... Unfortunately not with the best mind I ever had...  but they put up with my lunacy and like all good things it came to an end... 

...to a "Medical Leave" sort of end.