{"id":554,"date":"2009-06-13T02:13:45","date_gmt":"2009-06-13T09:13:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/silenceoftheclams.com\/blog\/archives\/554"},"modified":"2009-06-13T14:25:36","modified_gmt":"2009-06-13T21:25:36","slug":"happy-birthday-paul","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/silenceoftheclams.com\/blog\/2009\/06\/happy-birthday-paul\/","title":{"rendered":"Happy Birthday Paul"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dear Paul,<\/p>\n

I realized today that I didn’t get a birthday card in the mail to you – which I had fully intended to do.\u00c2\u00a0 So, instead, this year you get an online birthday greeting. I have no baby pictures of you to share – but did come up with a couple of gems \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

\"PaulSo…\u00c2\u00a0 Happy birthday to one of my favorite people in the world<\/em> – certainly my favorite former in-law. \u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 I have so many fond memories of times spent with you – most of them filled with laughter and or witty\/ironic observations<\/em> about the insanity that surrounded us.<\/p>\n

Thank you for giving me crazy perms and purple, red or blonde hair<\/em> and making me feel beautiful even when I wasn’t.\u00c2\u00a0 Time spent in your salon chair was better than therapy.<\/p>\n

Thanks for helping me survive the “Pearce years.”<\/em>\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 For the listening ear, the commiserating, the humorous observation, support and the shoulder to cry on.<\/p>\n

Thanks for taking me dancing<\/em> when your brother wouldn’t.\u00c2\u00a0 Memories of our trips to the Sun still make me smile.<\/p>\n

Thanks for being irreverent and snickering at the back of the room with me at those gawd-awful Christmas parties, where the entertainment was watching videos of the previous year’s entertainment.\u00c2\u00a0 I’m so glad I found myself among the troublemakers<\/em> of the family… there weren’t many of us, but we banded together and had a good time \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

\"PaulThanks for being one of the few people to whom I could send a birthday card I got at Cahoots back in the 80s \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

Thanks for opening my eyes<\/em> and completely shifting my perspective and view on being gay…. you were the first person I knew to come out – and, in that very moment, I realized that nearly everything I’d been taught about homosexuality was wrong. And I just keep thinking that if everyone could really know you, they’d all “get it…” and their eyes would be opened too!<\/p>\n

And though we are no longer officially related, you feel like family<\/em> to me… we’re now family by choice. I’m so glad that you finally got online so we could be in regular touch!<\/p>\n

\"CraigYou are a bright light and always a joy to be around, Paul<\/em>. I’m so delighted that you have found a place you love to live, and someone you adore to share your life with. May this year be the best yet.<\/p>\n

And yes – I am still planning on coming for a visit before the year is over!<\/p>\n

Happy birthday and love you!<\/em><\/p>\n

P.S. Anyone else want to wish Paul a happy birthday or share a memory of him with us? \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dear Paul, I realized today that I didn’t get a birthday card in the mail to you – which I had fully intended to do.\u00c2\u00a0 So, instead, this year you get an online birthday greeting. I have no baby pictures of you to share – but did come up with a couple of gems \ud83d\ude42 … Continue reading Happy Birthday Paul<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-familyfriends"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/silenceoftheclams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/silenceoftheclams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/silenceoftheclams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/silenceoftheclams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/silenceoftheclams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=554"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/silenceoftheclams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/silenceoftheclams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/silenceoftheclams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/silenceoftheclams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}