My First Six Decades

I turned 60 today. To say I'm feeling conflicted is an understatement, but as they say, it beats the alternative. I'll hash out some of the gloom with my therapist on Thursday.

I'm not doing anything for my birthday, I took things slow yesterday and after midnight I made myself dinner (ham, salami, Swiss cheese sandwich, two pickles and an Oreo Cookie-flavored Coca-Cola from China which was...interesting?) which was served on a gold-plated TV dinner tray my sister sent me for my birthday as a practical joke. Meaning, it was a joke, but also practical, because I really will use the ridiculous thing (it's a pain in the ass to clean, though). Winky got some ham, so, it was dinner for two.

I got all nostalgic and decided to watch ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN and I had such a good time with it. It really is so much better than it had any right to be. Then I watched ANIMAL CRACKERS, which I first saw in 1974 when it was re-released after being in a legal limbo for decades. I saw it with a group of kids for my friend Michael's birthday. I've seen it a couple of times since but not for a while and it was a lot of fun. I might go through all the Marx Brothers movies again.

One reason I was feeling nostalgic for the Universal Monsters stuff was that I ran across an ad for the NECA Peter Cushing figure, and then started looking into the other monster figures and I got the idea in my head that I'd go to Best Buy during my Thursday errands to see if by any chance they had either the Cushing or The Invisible Man toys, which were the two I most wanted. Except for the Wolfman, who I could never find. He's elusive, that Larry Talbot. I was surprised to find one of each, the last ones they had, and also The Phantom of the Opera figure on sale for half price. Oh, lucky nerd day! So I bought myself some birthday presents. I'm not really in the toy collecting game much, I used to be bonkers into action figures and sofubi but I rarely buy anything anymore (I just look at them online). I had a fun hour or so unpackaging everything and putting the figures together and being a big kid and all while rewatching THE OLD DARK HOUSE. I'd still like to pick up the Bride and the Wolfman if/when. Oh, and the Mummy. And Ardeth Bay. And the Christopher Lee figure. I wish they'd make an Abbott and Costello to go along with these things. Maybe for my 61st birthday.

I bought snacks at the Asian Grocery (which is where I got the Oreo Coke) but I binged them all before my birthday. That wasn't a good idea, and I should have known that would happen, because that's what I do. No impulse control. I still have two drinks left, but all the rice crackers and shrimp crackers and the blueberry wheat cake thingie have been consigned to my gastric chamber.

Which reminds me, I also got myself a colonoscopy appointment for my birthday. They're going to find nothing but a clog of rice and shrimp cracker paste. I don't care, I'm going to be asleep.

Tonight I'm going to do some more work on an 8-page comic script that's due at the end of the week. I'm feeling mighty rusty, I haven't written a script in a long time and I'm a bit lost at sea, but it's starting to come back to me. As usual, I have ten pages of material for an eight-page story, so, gonna kill some words tonight. I have another 8-pager to write later this Spring, but after this one is done I'm jumping back onto commissions and some comic pages I owe some friends. I have to catch up on everything before I can finally sit down and write the next Beasts of Burden arc. That's another present I want to give myself. I have to finish the series while I'm still lucid and my hands work.

I do have a Fudgie the Whale Carvel cake to look forward to later. So, there's that. I'm not complaining. I just wish I knew where the last ten years went.

Thanks a lot for being here, some of you for about half of those years. I am grateful for your patronage and hope the site has been worth backing. Thanks again. Your presence is a gift.

More, soon. Later.

My legal team has arrived!