Betty's Birthday Memories

Thanks for all the lovely birthday messages. I think it's the most I've gotten in a good many years. Sure is nice to have a genealogist hanging around who's happy to broadcast birthday numbers that you wish you could forget! Ha-ha!

To comment on a couple of comments: If I lived til Clara's age, I'd have to go through the living Hell of getting another Permanent Visa here in CZ--that's "Permanent" spelled "10 years". I think that would probably kill me dead right on my 90th birthday!

I've had a terrific birthday week, to respond to another comment. Adam Skoumal (y'all surely know who he is by now---my CZ piano teacher/fantastic concert pianist/composer) played a gorgeous concert with the Martinu String Quartet in Prague's most beautiful concert hall. Then things went downhill for a bit. A piano concert by a former child prodigy--still young--was so disappointing that for the first 10 minutes I was convinced some strange concerto had been substituted in the program at the last minute. I couldn't believe I was listening to Mozart. First time I ever heard Mozart hammered to death. But the company was great. Moving right along downhill: Killer headache caused me to miss out on a dance program put on by a very talented young friend who dances with the National Theater Ballet. (She is the wife of my most interesting new student, Pavel Liska, a hot young actor in both theater and films.) And finally on THE day, there was a trip to the dentist!

However, things began looking up after that. Adam and his recent bride Miluska mounted a razzle-dazzle celebration. When I walked in they had 80 votive candles arranged to form the number 80--- all burning merrily away. I wondered why Adam insisted that I must ring the downstairs bell instead of just using my key. The ring was obviously the signal to start lighting the candles while I was coming up 5 flights in the elevator. Amazing timing! Speedy, too! In the meantime, Adam had dropped me at the door and gone back to my flat. He said my birthday gift was in the trunk of the car and he had to have a place to put it together where I couldn't see him doing it. So the rest of us sat around chatting, eating the soup (I think this country would collapse if someone forgot to serve the soup), and I opened some of the gifts: chocolates, flowers, cognac, flowers, several cheery cards one of which (Adam's of course) wished me a Happy 800th Birthday, flowers, rock salt candles, and the big package turned out to be my raincoat just back from the cleaners. This was all interspersed with several phone calls from Adam whose 30 minutes at my flat was stretching to an hour and more. Not surprising since he wasn't having one of his best days. We'd had to make a quick stop for gas on the way when he noticed the needle on zero, and then discovered one of our brand new winter tires was almost flat.

So the rest of us sat around with a little more wine and a nice fire in the fireplace and played with the cat. Eventually, Adam turned up again and the next dinner course was my favorite here called Svickova (svitch-koh-vah) aka Beef Stroganov with Czech-style dumplings (made into a large roll, steamed and sliced). Dessert was a Tiramisu cake, another of my favorites. The rest of the evening was taken up with looking at Adam's and Miluska's wedding pictures, catching up on gossip in the music world, and just yakking in general. Around 1am, a couple of the guests bagged up all the loot and drove me back to my flat. I opened the door and there sat a beautiful dropleaf dining table that I've been meaning to buy ---ohh, for a couple of years now--just never got around to picking one out. Adam's project that held up the party! So all in all, ignoring that dismal number, it was a very lovely day. Now you know more than you ever wanted to know.

Thanks for asking.

Love, Betty