I was out to dinner for a friend's birthday last night. Ethiopian food. Luscious.

The company: BikerChick friend, her date, her oldest friend, her former pediatrician (and now friend) and the pediatrician's husband.

It started out kind of stilted, the type of dinner arrangement where you wonder if anyone around the table has anything in common. Luckily, as the evening progressed and I was able to have an intelligent conversation with all concerned, I felt things lighten up.

Near the end of dinner, we realized that four of us had birthdays within a week of each other. One September second, one the fifth, and two the eighth.

The pediatrician sat back, and said to the three other September babies, "Oh, you all I could see being Virgos. But," she continued, pointing at me, "not you."

I just smiled at her and said, "Then the plan is working."

It was the highest affirmation yet that I'm doing something fundamentally good for my soul.

And with that, to bed.