Momentous

What a momentous day today is!

I don't know if you've heard, but today? ToTal Eclipse of the Sun.

(It got very dawk, and there was this strange humming sound, like something from another world.)

Here in southeastern Connecticut, we've got a paltry 65-70% or something. The whole coast-to-coast swath is tragically bypassing us. I'm desperately jealous of those totality show-offs . . . Enjoy it, friends!

And as if a Total Solar Eclipse is not enough to make August 21, 2017 a memorable, momentous day . . .

Today is also the day when our beloved Jane Patricia, the #5 Corey Sister, joins her elders up here on the Fifth Floor.

Happy Birthday, Jane!

We were so happy, 50 years ago today, when you joined our growing family. In fact, I think it's my first memory.

We were in the kitchen at 26 Bettswood Road, and Mom called us to tell us the good news. Or maybe that wasn't the phone call to actually deliver the news, but Mom called, and we spoke to her.

First Mary Beth . . .

. . . and then Ann . . .

. . . and then me.

I was three -- going on four! -- and if I had ever spoken on the phone before, I don't remember. I certainly wasn't very good at it. So I just repeated what I had heard my sisters ask my Mom before me:

"Hi Mom."

"Hi Ellie!"

"Did you have a baby?

"I did!"

"What'd you have?"

"She's a girl!"

"What's her name?"

I mean, can you imagine? I remember my mom's voice on the phone; I do. I was echoing my sisters' questions, so I had heard their side of the conversation, but not Mom's answer to them -- I was so happy and shocked when I heard her actually speaking to me! Mom must have been cracking up, repeating her news to one dumb kid after another.

"It's Jane!"

Aw, Jane.

We needed that little nugget to make us the quintet we became for one short year . . .

. . .  a cute quintet, but so weirdly incomplete, until we finally became our permanent sextet a year later . . .

There we are!

 Um, right. Littles . . . rule?

Jane is fierce and smart and beautiful and devoted and driven and her nose crinkles when she belly-laughs. She's got pipes, she works out at 5 a.m., she cooks like a badass and -- probably most importantly of all -- she can do one hell of a wicked Arnold Horshack impression.

Happy 50th, Jane!

No, really! I mean it! It's not that bad!

Have yourself a goddess-like day.

And don't forget your eclipse glasses.