birthdays

This week has been special considering both of my parents celebrate their birthdays - today is my dad's Bday.   I have always love celebrating Bdays since it is an opportunity to celebrate the life of a relative, friend, muse.
 
My parents' birthdays are particularly special since it is really a celebration of our entire family.  Hey, if they were not conceived, my siblings and I wouldn't be here.   It is amazing to ponder all that had to fall in place for me to be in this lovely earth.  Mom is from Guanajuato and Dad is from Nuevo Laredo.   They left their native homeland to venture to the US for job opportunities and a better life.   Both made their journey in the late 1960s.   My father actually went to Los Angeles first since he had a brother already there.  As fate would have it,  he left LA to visit another brother in Chicago.  At first, he didn't like Chicago- it was to cold and grey.   He arrived in April - as we Chicagoans know, it can still snow in April.   He decided to see it thru and now he raves about Chicago!   At some point during his travels to LA,  he debated returning to Mexico due to feeling homesick and maybe some disappointment with America.   Eventually, he met the love of his life in Chicago (actually in the same neighborhood we grew up in).   Mom left Guanajuato and came straight to Chicago since she had an aunt here.  My father loved photography so he took several pictures during their courtship.    It is wonderful to see my parents as novios.   The shutterbug continued to snap away during our childhood so there are several goofy photos of us through out the years.   We often kid with each other that my parents found the perfect spot to raise a family.    Chicago has a magnificent lakefront.   We avoid several of the meteorological disasters such as tornados, hurricanes, forest fires, mud avalanches, earthquakes, and so on.   The summers normally don't get too hot which my dad and I are grateful for.