Independence

Wow. I had the best party last night. We had a lot of friends coming over for my birthday bash. We were almost 40! I don't remember having a birthday party with so many people, ever.

Most of the guests were latinos, but we had a few Canadians as well, including my good friend Peter and Pat (Isabel's husband). The food was great (well, duh; Gaby cooked!) and the company excellent. The whole evening was fantastic, and I just had the time of my life. But I had another -and more important- reason to be happy.

Gaby had the first class of the cooking course she's teaching yesterday. She came back at noon, and she was beaming. Everything had gone fantastically. Not only that, she had received a call from the people at the Community Centre, and they were already asking her if she was going to do another in the spring. She still has seven more weeks to go!

That made my day. Gaby is independent now. She can go out, and talk -in English!- in front of 13 people for 2.5 hours, and do just great. She's doing two things she loves: cooking and teaching. She's even going to get paid for this (not a fortune, but it's a great start). She's off to good things, I can feel that.

I have a cousin (Patsy) who's just one day younger than me, and another good friend (Veronica) who's two days older. We've been taunting each other in the past few days; when I talked to Patsy on her birthday, we both realized we would have our parties last night. We agreed we would make a toast at 10PM (my time) and wish happy birthday to each other. I did (did you?). And as I was holding my cup of Diet Coke I looked around, and thought about Gaby's day. Then I looked at the kids: Santi, who's becoming a little man, and still looks up to me in spite of being almost a teenager now. Carolina, always in the clouds but always beautiful and funny. Juan, who wants to grow so bad, but still looks like a little bear to me. And Florencia, who's growing and getting prettier every day and knows she's got me wrapped around her finger. And Gaby, of course, without whom I wouldn't be where I'm today. If I ever were mad at her (it hasn't happened in 16.5 years together) all I had to do is to remember any of the many things she's done for me and the family.

Based on all that, I have decided that yesterday, January 14th, 2007, was the best day of my life.

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