As birthday weekends go, this one wasn’t that bad, even with the absence of red velvet cake (dang it … what does a girl have to do if she wants something other than a whole cake???). Plus the “Arctic Hammer” (seriously???) waited till my oldest brother’s birthday to hit. Many years ago, he almost got a sister for his birthday. Now I almost got an arctic blast for mine. I’ll leave that to others to judge who’s luckier.

Birthdays are a chance to think about how your life has gone and how you hope it will go in the future. To that end, a few thank yous must be made.

Thanks, Mama, for teaching me right from wrong and the power of kindness, and for passing down your sense of humor, love of reading and learning, and fierce love of family. I could have done without the stubbornness at times, especially since you also gave it to Corey, but that’s OK. What you gave me made me the funny little weirdo I am, and I can’t fault that.

Thank you to my brothers for not actually cooking me in the oven as I imagine you were probably thinking in those stories Mama used to tell of all of you coming home from school to stand around my crib and stare at me (seriously, kinda creepy thinking about it). And thank you for showing me that big brothers come in handy, whether it’s learning to think like a 12-year-old boy while editing (i.e., thinking dirty before the readers do), learning how to ride a bike without training wheels or read before everyone else in my class (because I wanted to be just like you), or learning to live without one of you, though that lesson I would rather not have had, anymore than doing without Mama.

Thank you to my friends, not just the ones from long ago, some of whom I still count as wonderful companions, but those more recent. You’ve taught me that even weirdos like me can find their people, the ones who love deeply and strongly and who will protect and defend those they love, open their hearts and their doors if needed, and who keep me on an even keel, which is sometimes a hard row to hoe. And thank you for accepting that occasionally you and/or your pets will end up in this column.

And of course, thank you to all those pets throughout my life that I’ve had the honor to love, whether my own or someone else’s. Those still living, like Boo the Warehouse Cat, Charlie, Ollie, Spike, Zoie, Myrtle Ann and others, have a lot to live up to with Baxter Boo, Luke, Trouble, Pepper, Gizmo, JosieDammit and so many more looking down on them telling them they’d better be nice to their parents. The laughter and love given is worth the tears.

Thank you to all my teachers, but especially those like Hazel Russell, Carol Ferguson, Jo and Mike Elsken, Mary Looper, Alexander Sydorenko and Jennifer Rogers, who inspired me to better myself in ways big and small. Without their support and encouragement, I might not be fulfilling even a fraction of my potential. I still have a ways to go, but you helped me down the road.

Thank you to the bosses, good and bad (wow, I’ve had both, and some you might have thought were bad were actually good, and vice versa), who taught me patience (admittedly I’m still learning that; I was born early, so I’ve never really stopped being impatient) and other skills that have served me well over the years. You can take the credit or the blame, whichever you deem appropriate, for what I have become in my working life.

And thank you to my readers. You’ve let me into your lives, and some of you have even become friends. Your support means a lot, but so do your critical comments (at least those not done for trolling “lolz”), as all that helps me learn. I’m a nerd. Learning is sorta what I do. When I’m not making bad jokes, anyway. And, at the moment, freezing my butt off.

What lies ahead for me? Hopefully more time at the newspaper in a job I love with people who make the days better whether I’m in the office or working remotely. There are also the occasional side gigs like freelance editing of presentations and other things, and cat- and house-sitting, things I love doing and do well, and made for introverts like me. (Need any of that done? Let me know; sorry, the cat- and house-sitting is local to central Arkansas only.)

There will definitely be more time with my fur-nephews Charlie, Ollie and Spike as well as new and old fur-friends because I can’t deny the power of cat and dog therapy when you’re feeling low. Feel depressed and frustrated because it was like pulling teeth to get anything done at work? Find a cat to cuddle or a dog to skritch, and smooch on those little heads!

More time with family and friends is also in order, whether in person or on social media, texting or phone calls. There will be tears, but there will almost definitely be more laughs, usually at ourselves. We are endlessly entertaining, after all.

And kinda cute too.

For the world at large, I have hopes:

🫂 More consideration of our fellow humans. You don’t have to necessarily like others or want to hang out with them, but at least respect their right to exist. The fact that they exist at all—whether Christian, non-Christian, LGBTQ+, MAGA, Bama or Longhorn fans or whatever—doesn’t infringe on your rights, but making laws to make things difficult for them because you don’t agree with their beliefs most likely infringes on theirs. If the roles were reversed, would you want them making laws to target you? Marginalization can happen to any population given enough time and knowledge.

😵‍💫 Sanity. Please, please, please … stop with all the culture-war nonsense that really has nothing to do with anything but which political party is “protecting” you from things that for the most part don’t really exist. Rather than trying to solve problems that exist mainly in fevered minds (what my friend Earl Babbie calls soluprobs—solutions without problems), let’s try working on those that exist for more than a few people, like taxation that hits lower incomes more harshly, the wage gap, and immigration. When there are more transgender people as the perpetrators than the victims of bathroom assaults, maybe you can try to make your case again. Most women have probably seen trangender women in ladies’ rooms and not worried because hey, they just want to fix their makeup and pee in peace (we have stalls, ya know) … or they didn’t even know they were transgender. Do you really want to make a transgender woman who presents as fully female go to the men’s room? Do you understand the danger faced there?

👺 While we’re at it, how about ditching political theater altogether, especially if you consider political theater to be only what the other side does? (I think my fellow Arkies know who I’m talking about. If not, think LEARNS Act, FOIA, $19,000 lectern, Board of Corrections, etc.) It isn’t doing anything but riling up the masses. Imagine if more effort was put into finding real solutions to the actual problems we face.

Will my hopes come to anything? Only time and a little effort will tell.

Surely we can put in that effort.