This is a day late due to problems uploading picture.
(Pat and I at a work Halloween party a few years ago…me as Sparrow-ish pirate, Pat as Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds)
Today is my dear friend Pat A.’s birthday. Pat is a therapist at my place of employ and for a number of years we had shoebox offices side by side on the first floor. I don’t exactly recall when Pat and I became fast friends but she does…she said it was when I recommended Dava Sobel’s amazing book, Galileo’s Daughter. She can tell the story better than I but evidently that moment insured her that I might actually have a modicum of taste and a friendship was born.
For years Pat and I spent time each week in one or the other’s office talking about movies, television, music and books. Pat was the only person I know besides Mary and I who lived and died by NYPD Blue. We all felt, and feel, its loss tremendously.
Pat is one of the coolest women I know, a fact shared by her grandsons with whom she often attends films, because she keeps up with the lastest pop culture in movies and television and has an incredible range of literary, film, and musical likes. She has never shied away from any film or book or music recommendation no matter how crazy it may seem and we have been able to introduce each other to wonderful books and movies over the years. Pat also shares my affinity for P.G. Wodehouse, J.R.R. Tolkein, Sarah Brightman and Neil Gaiman which has made her a saint in my eyes.
Pat and I don’t see each other daily like we used to now that I’ve moved up a few floors (where the air is thinner!) but we do make a point of talking regularly and keeping up with what each other are reading, watching, etc.
Pat’s friendship has been a blessing and a gift from God and I am so thankful that I recommended that book as my life would be much less rich without Pat in it.
Have a happy, wonderful, magical, special birthday Pat.
I stopped by to check in on your blog and wish you a Happy New Year. May all your dreams come true in 2006!
Happy Birthday, Pat! You sound like the kind of friend who’s worth keeping 🙂
Happy Birthday, Pat!!! I have heard great things about you!
there are a few really worth it people out there and i’ll raise a toast to know that there’s at least one more – Happy B-Day Pat! You sound wonderful!
Carl, i’m not sure whether i came by already to wish you a Happy New Years! so here: HAPPY NEW YEARS! i wish you and yours much happiness and joy in 2006!
Is that a real missing tooth? I don’t remember seeing Johnny D. eating breaded mystery meat.
Those were some of the best hamburgers I had eaten in a long time!!! Its actually a silver tooth, truth be told…it was real…real annoying!
Happy Birthday Pat!
Wow, Carl. You make me sound cool! What a warm feeling that gave me to read it. Knowing you has enriched my life immeasureably. I now have lots more books to read; more on my list of books to read. And ditto on the movies. It is such a wonderful experience to find a person who shares one’s interest, especially when they are rather esoteric – sometimes. Thank everyone who wished me a happy birthday. That was fun.
Happy Birthday, Pat! You are a great lady and so fun too! Hope your birthday was super.
Have a blessed new year.
Happy Birthday, Pat! If Carl says you are cool – then you MUST be!
Hope your day is wonderful!
You are definitely cool Pat, its not my words that make it so! Hope you had a wonderful birthday and that your family gave you the royal treatment!
I get the royal treatment on Sunday, which I am looking forward to. There are so many of us now that I’m sharing it with one of my grandsons.
Pat, when I first saw this pic of you, I took my fingernail and was scraping my computer
screen to get the red spot off, then I realized that it was fake blood on your forehead!!
You look so sweet and demure that I didn’t expect the blood! It looks and sounds like you
are a really fun person!
Gotta watch those birds Jules…they’re killers!
very sweet, i hope you had a great birthday!