Happy 30th Birthday to Melissa

Today is someone's birthday and it wouldn't be right without mentioning her here today. She's someone very, very special to me.

Two weeks ago, I had something happen to me that happens to a lot of people, only it hit me as rather strange. Eye-opening. Intense. Dramatic. Life threatening.

My daughter and I had gone to Ruby Tuesdays for lunch and on the way home, I got excruciating pains and literally passed out right there in the passenger seat. According to the story, I was slumped over in the seat with my eyes open and breathing funny. She thought I had died.

She tried calling 911 but because it was one of those new touch cell phones, she did something wrong. Anyway, the call didn't go through. She said she straddled me and started yelling my name. My eyes at some point started to close and my breathing took on a new slower pattern.

I finally came to and I remember her saying, "You have food poisioning and you're going to the hospital," and all I could think about were new tours going out in 2 days. The last time this happened was about 15 years ago and I ended up in the hospital for a week. No way Jose was I going to let that happen again, I don't care how close to death I am.

I told her to just get me to the bathroom. She helped me up the stairs and into the bathroom on the 2nd floor where it came out of both ends. She then tried to help me to my bedroom on the 3rd floor but we didn't make it past the 3rd step. She put me on the couch in the living room and pretty much the first couple of hours I was there, she kept a vigil on me.

What I didn't know was how upset I had made her.

It's an awful thing to be in the situation where you might even "think" one of your loved ones is dying. I was the first person to see my own mother dead and it has haunted me to this day.

But not only was it a moment in her life that she will never forget, it was also a moment in my life that changed my silly notion that I was invincible and that nothing bad was ever going to happen to me. At least not right now in the prime of my life when everything else seemed to be going great.

How silly of me.

It's times like these that make you realize how fast you can go. I didn't even have time to put my head between my legs - pfff I was out.

But I am here today, alive and kicking, to wish my daughter, Melissa, the happiest 30th birthday ever. She was there for me that day and I know how much I worried her and really hated that that situation ever happened. But maybe sometimes we need reality checks. Maybe we need to see how fragile life is. Maybe we need to see we're not the invincible person we think we are and that shit happens all the time.

To you, Melissa, I wish you the happiest birthday ever.