Her 32nd Birthday

Today is her Birthday. I made her a cake; a yellow one with white frosting.

We are surrounded by friends and family. I just finished putting the candles (32) into the cake, and I begin lighting them with hope. Her Mom turns down the lights, and everyone begins singing Feliz Compleanos.

I enter the room, with her homemade cake shining bright. As I approach her, that big smile of hers illuminates as she stares happily at the cake. I tell her to make a wish and wink at her....

The truth is there is no cake. I am not even in her city. I'm not even in her hemisphere. I am back home. It's a bit surreal.

To be honest, she did incorporate me in the spirit of her birthday. She received my card and posted it on her Instagram and Facebook. I liked it!

Right when the clock struck midnight, I sent her an email with Caballo Blanco, a compilation of music I curated for her.

To show she received it, she tweeted a special message. The tweet was cryptic, but I decoded it. It was a retweet @Perfecttiming, dated August 9th, the last time we were together.

I love cryptic messages over social media that only two people can understand. I rarely find reasons to defend social media and its positive influence. In this case, it's special how she shared her birthday with me.

Our love is special, even if I'm not there delivering her homemade cake.

I love her.

She loves me.

Is your Glass Half Full or Half Empty?

I always loved this phrase. 

It reminds me of my Mom. 

She thinks the glass is half empty. 

I think the glass is half full.

The other day I went into a bookstore and saw this cute card. 

The card read that technically the glass is always full, 1/2 water and 1/2 air. 

This made me smile,  of course it made think of my Mom.

I guess both of us are wrong, which is better than one of us being right. 

The Quest for Perfection

I played a lot of Nintendo growing up--before school, after school, after dinner.

I loved Nintendo.

Mario Brothers, Zelda, Castlevania; these were some of my favorite quest games.

The beauty of the Nintendo is its simple design. You put a game into the console. Hit start. You are ready to play.

Next to the start button, there is another button: reset. 

I've been thinking a lot about about this button:

RESET


I promise you I hit that reset button more times than the start button. Mostly, for the wrong reasons.

If you a play a game long enough, then you understand what it takes to get to the next level, reach the end.

Nothing is more frustrating than losing a life early on because of a mistake or bad luck. The amount of time I spent playing Nintendo, this happened often.

Instead of continuing onward, with one less life, I would bend forward from my Indian sitting position and hit the reset button, start all over. 

Clearly, I was a perfectionist.

Still am today.

As I continue to live my life, there are several instances of bad luck, poor decisions and (un)willingly mistakes I wish I could erase.

Of course, I no longer have a Nintendo.  Still, I wish sometimes that reset button was there to push.

You get the point.

Sometimes its seems easier to start all over.  Life is not perfect, far from it.

The only similarities between Nintendo and a human life is the start button. In life, there is no reset button you press and everything begins anew. It doesn't exist. For so long it did exist in my mind.

Until, now. 

What I have learned is to embrace life's imperfections. Life is not a Nintendo game. The quest of Zelda is entertaining, but the quest of life poses as a constant challenge. Some parts are entertaining.

A mistake doesn't end a life, it changes the course. The reset button is a cop out that offers few rewards. 

The one attribute life holds over the virtual world of Nintendo: people possess an unlimited supply of lives.

So do yourself the favor and stop wishing you could start fresh. Continue on the quest of imperfection. You may be surprised how far you will go.

Shit. 

I finally realize how far I have. 

My Mom is a Hacker

Who knew? My Mom is a hacker.

Turns out my Mom is a Candy Crush addict, like me. She showed me the most amazing hack.

This is what she taught me:

• Assuming you use an iPhone, open up the "Settings" on your device
• Click on the "General" tab
• Scroll down to the "Date & Time" tab
• If your time is "Set Automatically" switch this feature to "Off"
• A new tab will appear "Set Date & Time", click on it
• Change the time so it's 2.5 hours in the future. Say it's 9:00 am, change your clock to 11:30 am. 
• That's it! 
• Re-open your Candy Crush app and you will notice your lives have been fully restored.
• Just make sure you set the time automatically again so your phone displays the correct time