On my return flight from Denver this evening, my purse opened and a few items hit the ground; most notably my cell phone and iPod.

Thankfully, both were immediately retrieved without incident.

However, it wasn’t until I was cleaning out my purse a few moments ago that I discovered my favorite lip gloss — MAC‘s tinted gloss in Viva Glam V — is gone.

{An aside: MAC created the Viva Glam V color for Ms. Anderson a year or two ago. It has become my favorite lip hue in recent weeks.}

I’m most certain the little plastic tube is lying somewhere on the ground of a United Airlines 757 that departed Omaha sometime this evening.

Woe is me.

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Two more of my favorite photos, as I near the first 90 minutes of me as a 28-year-old. (I was born at 4:20 a.m.)

A random photo of me as a young pup.

This photo was taken a few years ago. My late grandma and I share the same birthday and always celebrated together. Happy birthday, Maw.

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Would one consider an automated birthday greeting sincere?

From: sandyjb_847@yahoo.com
Subject: Happy Birthday from The Jayhawks FanPage Board
Date: December 6, 2006 12:09:36 AM CST
To: wendy@shaggy-money.flywheelsites.com

Hello wendytownley,

We at The Jayhawks FanPage Board would like to wish you a happy birthday today!

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I turn 28 on Wednesday. The pending anniversary of my birth got me to looking through old photos.

These are three of my favorites.

This was obviously taken on Halloween many moons ago. In the photo are my cousin, Renee (she’s holding the plastic pumpkin); her brother, Matt (don’t you just love his staged “scary” pose?); and yours truly, dressed as Strawberry Shortcake.

Here are the three cousins (a few years before my sister, Katie, was born). From left are me, Renee and Matt enjoying the sunshine in our grandparents’ back yard near 32nd Avenue and Vinton Street. Today Renee is 27 and Matt is 30. My, how time flies.

Here are the cousins again, including my other cousin, Shannon (she’s holding the coloring book). This photo was taken during one of my birthday parties in our basement. I love how my cousin, Renee, is doing her best to keep my sister from lifting up her dress for the camera. Even then Katie was an exhibitionist.

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If so, you absolutely must make digg / Apple a daily stop. Bookmark this sucker!

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I spent part of my Saturday afternoon discovering the ingenuity, creativity and simple bliss of iLike. I know I posted about iLike before, but it’s truly a nifty application. It’s an add-on to iTunes and MySpace. Plus, iLike helps you discover other types of music.

Here’s my iLike page: http://www.ilike.com/user/wendywriter

Join me, won’t you?

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Say hello to my new T-shirt, which will be ordered online (and, later, received and worn) very, very soon.

Can you tell me what’s special about the phrase on this tomato-hued beauty?

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From: Katie Townley [mailto:ktownley@koce.org]
Sent: Thursday, November 30, 2006 4:51 PM
To: Townley, Wendy (CCI-Omaha)
Subject: RE: Christmas vacation

xo big sis. we only have each other in the war against crazy

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Dear Molly —

I cannot thank you enough for the lovely, lovely bottle of Chance perfume by Chanel. Your gift is beyond thoughtful and my thanks go beyond words.

And while I love the perfume and will enjoy it for months (years?) to come, I’ll treasure our lunch at Qdoba even more. We continually manage to solve the world’s problems in under an hour.

We are that good.

You are the best, doll. The best there is.

Forever “Wendy Townley With The Great Scarves,”
-W.

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To properly prepare for the celebratory feast that takes center stage on Thanksgiving, I did what any health-conscious American would do on Skinny Wednesday (the day before Fat Thursday, a.k.a. Thanksgiving).

I cancelled my YMCA membership.

I said “no thanks” to the Y’s open arms, treadmills, swimming pools, yoga classes and locker rooms. Their fresh towels and free water just weren’t for me any more.

I’d been an active member for more than a year. But when June rolled around, I just quit going.

In that year, I didn’t lose any weight, really. I may have toned up a bit, but nothing I wouldn’t miss in exchange for gorging on fatty, salty and sugary snacks. Now there’s a reward I dig.

So here’s to celebrating those Holiday Pounds, the best gift we could ever receive this food-filled season.

Happy birthday, baby Jesus. It’s all for you.

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