So there I was, happily minding my business, doing a bunch of things involving a variety of careers and characters and, BAM, just like that I turned 50.

Fifty.

Five-oh.

Half a fricking century old!!!!

I haven’t blogged about it yet because I haven’t made time to blog a lot and then Hawaii happened and that seemed significant and I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to feel something more… I don’t know… surreal? Life changing? Poignant?

I don’t, though. I don’t feel anything ‘wow’ about hitting this milestone.

I do have big feelings about it, though, because of the wealth of love and laughter shared a couple of days before the actual turning-of-50 occurred.

Alistair suggested throwing me a party months ago. At the time I wasn’t so sure me getting old needed any celebration but then the smart part of my brain kicked in.

I got thinking that if something happened to me and there was a funeral, all of the special people in my life would be invited and maybe a lot of them would attend. They would talk about me and share stories but I wouldn’t be there to share in any of that.

This way, we could still have the gathering of all the people who mean so much to me and I’d be there to enjoy it!

It was a celebration of life while I’m still alive to party with everyone!

And what a party…

Most people who know us know that there are ways to do things and then there are the Fyfe ways to do things. Its a ‘go big or go home’ kind of mentality and we both get a kick out of going overboard with events like this.

There was well over $2000 worth of booze and enough food to feed a small army, not to mention the killer Karaoke, ridiculous collection of leis and plethora of tiki torches that lit up the paths to the bonfire and the campers that people brought at our encouragement.

The coolest part of the party was the collection of friends and family who were able to join us. Corynn, one of my vet clinic friends had said, a couple of weeks before the party, that she was excited to meet all of the people from all aspects of my life. Well, kiddo, we nailed it!

In my veterinary world, one of my dear vet school classmates drive down from Kelowna, BC (love you, Tara and JP!) I also had Lynnie there, from the Seeley Swan Veterinary days, a bunch of my veterinary clients and a handful of my current team-mates from the clinic I work at now in Deer Lodge!

My skating world was represented by Paige Lawrence, who I have shared ice with in Saskatchewan and Manitoba since she was a little girl. (Paige also represented Canada at the Sochi Olympics, which has been blogged about before on here.)

Paige and her hubby, Richmond (rodeo star, also been blogged about previously) bridged the skating world with my real estate world, which was represented by other realtors, office colleagues, my favorite home inspector and several clients who I’ve worked with to sell or buy homes over the past 4 years.

Many of my real estate clients were just names to Alistair until the party. Or, not even names because he’s not great with names so the Elliotts were, ‘The Lot on Montana That We Sold’ or Sarah and Matt were known as ‘East Missoula’. And several of my clients joked about my fake husband, “Alistair”. (Unfortunately, ‘Salt Lake City’ weren’t able to make the gathering… they are the most suspicious about this “Alistair” guy…)

Our neighborhood up in “the meadow” had great representation with Brandon and Jessi and their Percheron team, along with Mom, Raeann helping with the little ones. Neighbors, Cyd Kats, the Knights and Tony and Beth were here, too so a lot of us got to catch up with great conversation and great food and drink. (Neighbor-Chip couldn’t attend but he stopped by the morning of the party for a coffee and a visit).

Our golf world didn’t have a lot of representation but Brad, who works at our local course and Steve and Helen were there. Several of our golf crowd had already taken off for warmer temperatures and year-round golf courses by the time my party happened so we weren’t too surprised.

Golf gang reps, Helen and Steve!

I had family who mean the world to me in my Auntie Wendy and Uncle Pete. They are the closest relatives I have in my heart and they have always been eager to share in Alistair’s and my world. We often stay with them when we venture up to BC and they were our very first house guests when we moved to Montana.

Pete and Wendy came a day early and got to share in my brother-in-law’s gift to me, a pretty wicked Karaoke set up that ran through our speakers once Ian got everything organized. Alistair and Uncle Pete tried a few songs the night before and all of us laughed our butts off. To quote Ian, “I think I created a monster”.

All of the party guests loved my relatives and that was just another amazing aspect to the party!

Uncle Pete gave a very sweet speech in our Great Room when most of the guests were still here, before the Karaoke party really got going. I was touched he remembered so much of my zany life and honored he took the time to share his words with so many important people in my life.

Again, this is the kind of thing I wanted to be a part of and wanted to share with everyone.

The die-hards among us then turned to Karaoke for the remainder of the night. Alistair and I kicked it off with our Wild Montana Skies that embodies everything about why we chose to live here so many years ago. He’s a singer and I’m a poser but I didn’t totally suck and I don’t think everyone was making it up when they said they enjoyed it.

I remember most of what happened after that.

I remember thinking Sami, Brad and Paige all can put on quite the show with a microphone in their hand. I also remember laughing my head off at Madeleine, Paige and Richmond and the group of vet gals who tried, valiantly, to do justice to Black Velvet (sorry, Sami, we tried… I don’t think we were focused…)

I remember thinking how amazing it was to have so many people, of all ages, from all sorts of backgrounds and different stages of life, from all these places around North America celebrating and singing together all in one happy, safe place.

And I definitely remember feeling all of the love from everyone.

Most especially Alistair, who threw this ridiculously huge party-of-the-century for his little 50 year-old wife.

I didn’t want to make a big deal about turning 50.

It sounds old but I certainly don’t feel old. Not that I’m sure what ‘old’ should or could feel like.

I feel lucky to have made it to 50 because I’ve got a few friends who never did.

And I feel lucky to have had the life and the stories I’ve already had because, well, its been a shit-ton of fun and the stories are awesome and the memories make me smile. I’m blessed to have so many colleagues, clients, family members and co-workers from so many varied paths I’ve walked and it doesn’t matter what their title is or how we actually met or were introduced… they are all my friends!

This party brought it all together.

Wow… what a night!

Here’s to the next 50!