Happy Anniversary

August 29, 2006


Dear Hollywood,


I just wanted to take a minute and say hi. Let you know I am thinking of you and all that we have been through. I couldn't let this day pass us by without acknowledging all that we have endured. Ours has after all, been nothing short of a love affair.

I'll never forget the sunny smile you beamed when Shaunessy and I drove up in my VW Fox. We were listening to The Go-Go's "This Town" as we poured into the valley on the Ventura Freeway. An appropriate soundtrack as I started my new life. I can still smell the air. You were so welcoming and inviting, how could I ever resist your advances?

I'll never forget our first date. You took me to my first premiere. Romy and Michelle's High School Reunion. I'll never forget how surprised I was when you put my picture in the paper the next morning. Always full of surprises. Or what about the night you snuck me and my friends onto the Friends' stage and we played fussball all night in Joey and Chandler's apartment? You have already filled my head with unbelievable endless memories.

I'll never forget how you comforted me on that tragic September day as the world felt like it was crumbling in on itself. I could've felt alone and frightened, but you made me feel at home and as safe as anyone could have felt.

You have introduced me to so many people from all over the globe. My life couldn't be as abundant with my spectacular friendships had you not been so charming and brought them to live here. I really thank you for them.

I thank you for allowing me to live a normal life while you make fabulous things happen. You have always been generous with your magic dust when it comes to my ordinary adventures.

I have never turned my back on you because you have never turned your back on me. I have always fought and defended you to everyone. Especially the people who write you off as loud and obnoxious and polluted and full of traffic. I can relate. They obviously never saw the magnificent beauty that I see in you. You are malleable and can be whatever we need you to be- the backdrop for a star studded affair, or a hiking trail filled with trees and peaceful silence.

Do you remember that afternoon up at the Griffith Park Observatory? It was you, me and Robbie. We were so young. So hungry. So ambitious. From where we stood, we could see you sprawled out in your entirety. My own majestic oasis. Robbie commented to me (in what I believed to be half-hearted), "someday, you are going to be running all of this".

Again, we were so young and full of dreams, bbut you have never given me a reason to stop believing it is possible. And that is where I thank you and love you the most. For always reminding me, even on those days the traffic is too thick and the smog is blinding. When people are pissing me off and my dreams feel like they are waking up, you always surprise me with a gift. Something precious between you and I. And it is always just enough to remind me, that anything is possible. That I can have and do whatever I need, so long as I don't stop believing in you.

Thanks for that my love. Thank you for my magic life. Thanks for the last ten years.

I look forward to many, many more.

Happy Anniversary Darling...

xoxo

Baub