Getting younger on my birthday

It's been awhile since my last post, a month minus a day to be exact but I haven't had anything to say until now. Since my last post I have recovered from my PHB syndrome (refer to last post for it's definition) only to walk right into my 47 birthday. It was uneventful to say the least.(One quick side note, don't go to Carrows restaurant for a piece of birthday pie and expect anything good to come out of it, that's another story for another day). As you get older you learn that your birthday is not as important to others as you may think, your mom and immediate family maybe, but the rest of the world can give two hoots about it. In some ways that not so bad, it keeps the ego in check, you are not as important as you may think, humbling isn't it?

So, here is a story for the books. I'm creeping up on the age of 50 and so I'm freaking out a little bit about turning 47 on my birthday. I keep telling my self I'm almost 48, I'm almost 48, I'm almost 48 over and over again. I start thinking that 48 is only a hop and a skip from 50. I thought if you had 47 marbles in your hand and someone asked, "How many marble do you have?" You would say, " Oh, I guess about 50, skipping right past 48, 49 and you would go right to 50. My birthday has changed from me becoming 47 and now it is all about me being almost 50, Half of 100! I'm approaching a hundred! I told you I was freaking out a little bit. So I keep telling myself I'm almost 48 over and over again until I actually start to believe that I am turning 48 this year on my birthday. That's right I twisted reality and disposed of an entire year of my life.

Weeks go by and now I'm convinced I'm turning 48. I find myself giving myself little pep talks, you know, I tell myself things like, getting older isn't all that bad, sure my hair is thinning and turning grey and I'm having trouble controlling my mid drift more than ever but I should look at the up side. "What up side?" I asked. "Well, let me think," I said. Then out of no where I began to blurted out the most depressing stuff, " You don't have to pull out your I.D. when you order an alcoholic drink anymore and kids call you mister and sir now and, uh.... you can pass gas in the restroom while you're peeing without being embarrassed and....STOP! I screamed to myself, " I get it, I'm becoming a 48 year old middle aged man, the guy women now think that I remind them of their dad or uncle. The guy that kids start throwing the football a little softer to when playing catch. What's next, is someone going to give up their seat on the bus for me?

Forgive me, I digress. So, to add to the problem I announce to a group of new friends that it's my birthday on the 4 of February and that I'm turning 48. My wife looks at me in a curios way and says, "Your not turning 48 your turn 47," I then retort with the most cocky attitude, "Honey, I think I would know how old I am, it is my birthday after all," she backs off as not to embarrass me in front of the group. Now you can add senility to the aging process as well, I forgot how old I am and I'm adamant about my answer even though I'm wrong. Later that night my wife does the math over again in her head and figures out that I'm wrong. I already came to the same conclusion and was trying to figure a way out when she yells over the bannister and interrupts me right in the middle of watching a program on the Discovery channel (I am 46 after all). She announces, "Honey, you're turning 47 not 48, I told..." I interrupted her with, "I know, I already figured that out, I'm such an idiot, now I have to tell everyone that I forgot how old I am, isn't that just great?" She laughed.

Okay, so my birthday came and went and even though it was uneventful here is the up side to turning 47. Because I thought I was turning 48 on this birthday and I was really only turning 47 it was like I got a year younger this birthday not older. I got younger instead of older this year, AWESOME! Hey, It works for me so just let it alone and let me live in the skewed little world that I've created for myself in peace, thanks.

This an old drawing that I reworked digitally.

This is a watercolor and mixed medium of a conceptual drawing for "KINGDOM OF THE SUN" later to become "THE EMPEROR'S NEW GROOVE"

Old world piece, I have a few more to go, sorry Jodi.

Conceptual piece from "ICE AGE II" lava tubes under the glacier.

Work book drawings from "BROTHER BEAR" of the wise woman before we had model sheets.

This is sketchbook drawing of a shack that was at the top of the Grand Canon near our hotel room. It was an awesome trip, I asked Jodi to marry me and she said yes and we rafted down the Colorado river for 8 days.

This is a drawing of a memorial stone, who knows why I drew this, it's a mystery to even me.

this is another workbook drawing from "BOTHER BEAR", Kenia was packing his stuff to leave.

This is a conceptual drawing as well as a workbook drawing for "BROTHER BEAR". Like all films you eventual run out of time and ours was no different, because of story changes and other things I'm not aware of Bob Walker allowed me to participate in designing the indian village. I did this in tandem with doing the workbook, it was a great experience, thanks for the opportunity Bob.