Happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me, happy birthday blah, blah, blah ....

Age: 53

Kids: 2

Lifetime total wives: 1

Current favorite song: "Into Action," by Tim Armstrong.

Good things about the last year: Sold a book series, lost 15 pounds, shaved my head, decided to move to Florence next year, drove in Italy and survived, daughter coped well with dyslexia, son developed a sense of humor about himself, got an iPhone.

Bad things about the last year: Sister died, still yelled too much at the kids.

Current favorite TV shows: Scrubs, 30 Rock, Battlestar Galactica, The Shield, The Wire, The Simpsons, Lost, Jon Stewart, Olbermann. (Sorry Colbert, you're on too late.)

Longest 12 hours of last year: Delta flight from Rome to RDU. With kids. In coach. Shitty domestic-use plane repurposed and with no entertainment.

Best evidence I'm an asshole: I didn't cut Italy short to make my sister's memorial service.

Best evidence I'm not a complete asshole: Creature Comfort, the mini-charity we run to provide companion animals to indigent handicapped people passes its tenth year.

Things I learned from my kids: Nutella's kind of good.

Signs of self-control: the goddamned pug's still alive, isn't he?

New vice: Cubans. I was fine with the Macanudo Golds and the Ashton Maduros, then along came the Cubans.

Best movies I saw during the year: Knocked Up and Hairspray. Bear in mind I see a lot of kid flicks.

Best movie news: the two guys from Hollywood trying to put together a movie deal for our old s-f series. Can you say "separate merchandise accounting stream?"

Best reason to wince: my lawyer/agent and I pressure an editor to make a yes/no decision, the negotiation ends on a pissy note, and a few weeks later the man dies of cancer. He'd always been a sweet guy and I ended it badly, not knowing what was going on.

Fun but exhausting: 12 day documentary shoot in London, Paris, Amsterdam, Madrid and Barcelona. Overbook much?

Current health paranoia: stroke. No, I don't have high blood pressure. But since I have books due the Irony Gods would go with brain damage. Just to fuck with me. Hey, I've made no claims to sanity.

Best hotel of the year, domestic: Hotel 1000, Seattle.

Best hotel, foreign: San Clemente Palace, Venice.

Most disturbing thing I learned about myself: when I lost weight I purged some clothing. Turned out I owned 48 pairs of underwear. What the fuck is that about?

Pictures from my 52nd year:

This entry was posted by Michael Reynolds, on Thursday, July 26, 2007. You can leave your response.