Richard Lowe's Birthday Celebration 2005

I have a personal philosophy about birthdays. A person's birthday is important; after all, it's the day his or her current identity (life) began. The birthday is the day that a young body drew it's first breath of air, screamed it's first scream, and looked at it's mother and father for the first time. It's a time of celebration, a time to exclaim to the world "I'm alive!"

All of the holidays have meaning to me: The New Years holiday is, to me, a time of reflection. Halloween is a time to pretend, to cut loose and have a good time. Christmas is very special, even for non-Christians like myself, as I find it's a great time to reflect on spiritual matters and to give to others and one's self. Of course, being an American, the Forth of July is the time to celebrate our great nation, and September 11th is a time to remember how important it is to guard our freedoms and how difficult they were to gain.

Birthdays are more personal. A birthday is about a person. I like to reflect back on my life, the good times, the things I've done, goals I've accomplished, people I've known and the plain and simply good times I've had.

There was a time in my life when I got very depressed around my birthday. It didn't seem important to anyone else...and that caused me to feel lonely and sad. Last year I had a major realization: it is in my power to make my birthday special and meaningful to me.

Last year I went to the Grand Canyon for a few days. It was a wonderful, memorable trip, one of the best that I have ever taken.

This year I decided to go all out and really celebrate another year of life.

• Wild Animal Park - I purchased their special deluxe photo safari, which is a three and a half hour trip through four environments. I was the only person on the tour, which made it even more special.

• Merlin's Magic Dinner Theater - This is a wonderfully funny dinner show, aimed both at children and adults.

• Universal Citywalk - I took a few minutes to peruse the shops on my way to Universal Studios.

• Universal Studios - Since the street where I live was closed for a special event, I decided to take the subway to Universal Studios. I have a year long pass just for this contingincy.

• Hollywood Blvd - I took a couple on hours on the way home to walk around Hollywood blvd. It's an interesting walk full of interesting people.

• South Coast Botanical Garden - On Sunday, I went to South Coast botanical garden with a friend. I love this garden and have gone many times.

• Cabrillo Aquarium - My friend and I stopped at the Cabrillo Aquarium and marveled at the sea life.

• Cabrillo Beach - After the aquarium, we took a quick walk on the beach. The water was as calm as a swimming pool.

• Oldest Operating MacDonalds - I had to show my friend (who is from Canada) a local historical monument.

• Disneyland - I'd been looking forward to visiting Disneyland for months, and this was my chance. Since it was a Monday, I had the park virtually to myself. It was great being able to just get on the Pirates of the Caribbean and the Haunted Mansion without waiting in line. I ate lunch at the Blue Bayou restaurant, which is actually in the Pirates of the Caribbean attraction.

• Hot air balloon ride in Temecula (postponed due to bad weather)

• Medieval Times - On my birthday, I thought that a visit to Medieval Times would be perfect. I was right, this was an excellent three hours.

• California Adventures - On Wednesday I had to visit California Adventures, the sister park for Disneyland. This park is very different, with more thrill rides than anything else.

• Laguna Beach - I stopped at a beach that I remembered visiting as a child. I remembered seeing tide pools, and I specially searched them out today.

• Capistrano Beach - I made a quick stop at this beach, just to see what it was all about.

• San Juan Capistrano - I remembered studying this mission as a teenager in school, so wanted to make a quick visit to see what it was about (I've been there once before many years ago). It's an interesting visit, with a very sugar-coated, almost bubbly version of history in their brochures.

• Kearney Park Renaissance Faire - And finally, I capped the whole birthday week off with a wonderful trip to a very cool Renaissance Faire in Fresno. It was a great way to end my birthday week.

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