Happy Birthday Sweetie!

Today is my wife Heather's 30th birthday. She is the absolute center of my universe and we're celebrating today by going to my folks' house and, with family and friends, having a good time and spending the afternoon relaxing. I'm giving her a digital camera so we can take pictures of our first child, who is due early next month. In a way, I was hoping that the baby would come a couple of weeks early and arrive today, because my wife was born on her father's birthday. I love you, Heather, and am excited about our upcoming adventure!

On that note, Heather and I started dating ten years ago, and when newly dating couples start sharing information like birthdays, one always makes sure he doesn't forget a big date like that. For me, it was easy. When asked how I'd remember a date such as her b-day, I said, "I'll never forget that, it's the day Woodstock started!" Thirty-five years ago today, at 5:08 est, Richie Havens walked out on stage in a field near Bethel, New York, and performed in front of an estimated 400,000 people. He played first because the traffic jams kept the rock and rollers from delivering their equipment. We all know the history of that long, mythologized weekend of music, but for me, having a wonderful woman sharing a date of a wonderful event makes me feel just that much closer to the things that I love and the things that I can not remember.

With that, let's all raise our glasses and toast Phish, the band that is dancing its "last waltz" right now in Vermont. The band that has been together for twenty-one years is calling things quits and is celebrating its career with a Woodstock of sorts in its home state. The connections are amazing: tens of thousands of fans from all over the nation there to party; a major rainstorm that is closing the highways and turning the venue into a mudpit; stereotypically smelly and dirty hippies now getting a good rinse-off; and some incredible music from some incredible performers. I love Phish. I loved them more in the 1990s when their music was better, but the amazing talent of Jon, Page, Mike, and especially Trey keeps things boogying long into the night. Farewell, Phish, happy birthday honey, and long live Woodstock.