Today's blog post is dedicated to Richard, because it is his birthday. And not just any birthday, mind you, but his 40th. In honor of this special day, I am posting some fun facts about Richard that you might not have known (and some that you probably do).
1. He is from Nuneaton, a small town near Coventry, in the middle of England. Nuneaton was a fabric mill town, and Richard's grandfather served in WWII in Egyptian cotton mills. Nuneaton was also the home to famous British author George Eliot, who was a lady. A lady named George -- imagine that..... As a side note, Nuneaton is about as far away from the ocean as you can get in England, yet Richard's mother is an avid supporter of the Bristish Lifeboating Association. That has always amused me.
2. Richard went to college a couple of times in England, but it didn't stick. He was actually accepted to some library science programs, but for some reason pursued sociology and nursing. He had to come here to be a British Librarian.
3. After the non-sticking college experience(s), Richard went to Israel where he worked on both a kibbutz and a moshav (farm). He has some great stories about the farm -- shooting porcupines from the back of an ultralight plane, living with runaway convicts, etc.
4. When I first met Richard, I thought he was Jewish. Refer to # 3.
5. When I first met Richard, he had long hair in a pony tail (which he did not wash for a year, as an experiment), skinny legs that ended in Doc Marten boots, and all his belongings fit in a backpack. Needless to say, he was dreamy.
6. Richard did a six month internship at a huge homeless shelter in DC, and was much beloved by the residents and staff. When we got married in Cecil County, MD (hotbed of the KKK) at the shelter where we met, a van-ful of African-American homeless people drove up for our wedding, to mingle with the rural white homeless people. Good times.
7. Richard loves to read. Anything and everything. He is happiest with his nose in some kind of reading material. He approaches the
Economist the same way I approach
Entertainment Weekly. For some reason, he knows MUCH more about current events than I do. He was meant to be a librarian. But for some reason, he refuses to change his name to Giles.
8. Speaking of Giles, Richard loves
Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the TV show and the comic books. He also loves most science fiction, the
Blade trilogy, and the collected works of the incredible actress, Michelle Rodriguez. You may be surprised to learn that he played a lot of Dungeons and Dragons as a youth. But now is his time, since Geek is the new Cool.
9. Richard is kind of deaf, which makes going to bars and restaurants kind of a bummer for him. But he likes to hang out with people, and is quite chatty. He is really funny, especially to Andrew. It took him some time to get used to my crazy family, and he still refuses to play Pictionary with us, but he loves it when everyone is around.
10. Richard is a great dad. He loves Lucy to the moon and back. Lucy and I both get a little scared when he uses his stern dad voice, but that is a rare occurrence. Richard is also a great husband. He would do anything for me, which is pretty amazing. I think his favorite thing to do is just hang out with me and Lucy, especially if he can be covered in cats.
11. Richard loves cats. Dogs, not so much, but he walks them and takes them to the park, and sometimes I catch him snuggling with Butterstick.
12. Richard can play the piano, guitar, and pretty much any stringed instrument. For awhile (when we lived in Cecil County), he had a banjo. I wish he would play more.
13. Richard is artistic. I always teased him when he was in school because he was Mr. 4.0. Then he had to take a studio art class, which I thought would bring an end to his perfect GPA. Imagine my surprise when he started painting amazing works of art. Next time you are at our house, check out the painting of paper cranes that hangs in our living room. Richard painted it, and it is awesome.
14. Richad has a tattoo that says "sui generis", which is Latin for one-of-a-kind (who knew?). Once, when he was at the Wawa, the clerk asked him if it said "You so generous" -- so now it does, in our hearts.
15. There are many more fun facts I could share, but we are getting ready to go to NYC to celebrate his big day, so I will end by saying:
I glitter heart Richard, and wish him a HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY! I can't wait to see what he will be like at 50, 60, 70, 80....and more!
Love Love,
Me
One of the best things we did when we were in New York last weekend was to record a story at the StoryCorps booth in Lower Manhattan (if you don't know about StoryCorps, you should read about it here). I was the interviewer and Richard was the storyteller, and we talked about Lucy's heart defect. The StoryCorps facilitator did a fantastic job at putting us at ease, and in spite of the microphone, and the small audience (Lucy and the facilitator), it felt like Richard and I were just having a private conversation. It was a really cool experience -- I recommend doing it. If you are so inclined, feel free to listen. 
