I woke up this morning with my clock radio playing Porgy and Bess on KBAQ radio, one of the few remaining classical radio stations in the country. This stunning recording seemed a great way to start my 76th year–with beautiful music!

Then, I tried to get up. Owwww! My hips hurt, my back ached, my legs seemed to be made of limp spaghetti. When I finally got out of bed, I had to wait for a moment until I could be sure I was able to walk to the bathroom without falling on my butt.

After my usual morning routine of teeth brushing and putting on make-up (I put on makeup even to take out the garbage), I felt a little better, until I walked into the family room and took a look outside. Rain. Again. For the umpteenth day in a row. In Arizona, yet! Doesn’t the state’s name come from the phrase “arid zone?”

Oh well, I decided to make the best of it. Time for breakfast. It’s my birthday, so do I really want another Jenny Craig meal? Couldn’t I have something a little more…special? After looking through the refrigerator and all the cupboards, I settled on cereal–a mix of Cocoa Puffs and Kashi’s Go Lean. I’m positive the Go Lean will offset the extra calories in the Cocoa Puffs.

I didn’t have much to look forward to today. My 95-year-old writer friend, Dottie, was in the ICU at the hospital, following a surgery to repair an aneurism. She wasn’t doing too well, and I couldn’t get in to see her because I’m not “family.” Even though I took her to the hospital at 5:00 a.m. in the morning two days ago, sat in the waiting room all day, and I’ve seen her more in the last two years than any of her family members––I’m not family, so I can’t see her.

Then, the phone rang. It was my Edward Jones agent calling to wish me a happy birthday. We chatted for a while––about the oil prices, the stock market volatility, and the way the Chinese are messing things up by shutting down their markets in the middle of the day. Most importantly, he assured me that Donald Trump would NOT be elected as President of the United States.

With that assurance, I returned to writing my birthday blog. I wish I could say that suddenly the clouds parted, the sun came out and dried up all the rain, and I received a call that Dottie was doing fine and ready to come home. But no, that didn’t happen. I’m still 76, my arthritis hurts, and one of my best friends is lying in the hospital, fighting for her life.

However, I realize that things are as good as they’re going to get….today. Tomorrow there’s a possibility that Dottie will be on her way to getting well. Tomorrow I’ll be with several of my writer buddies, and we’ll laugh and share our stories with each other. I’ll get back to writing the middle grade novel I’ve started that’s based on an idea given to me by my ten-year-old great niece. The weather department tells me that there’s a warming trend starting tomorrow and sunshine is expected all week. In a couple of days, I’ll be singing with my comedy barbershop quartet, Lilac Crazy––we chose that name, not because we’re crazy about the color lilac…no, it’s because we LIE like crazy!

So, I guess this is a pretty good day for a birthday, after all. Why? Because no matter how bad it looks today, I know there’s a possibility that things will be so much better tomorrow.