After a Fashion

THE WESTWARD HO I'm filing this from the MobileJet (www.mobilejets.com), pretending I lead a life of luxury but am so busy that I must work even while traveling. The seats are as comfortable as those in a first-class cabin, the music swirls from the sound system, and we watch images on the three HD LCD TVs. Rich Mann, the owner of MobileJets, proudly showed off the vehicle's finer points, including mobile wi-fi, a bar, a bathroom, and an attendant named Meredith. I was ready to celebrate my birthday. It's been the least dramatic birthday week in years. I didn't even start thinking about it until a couple of weeks ago, and my old friend Neil Diaz (www.neildiaz.com), who is now NCD Resources, took control of all the details, and voilà! A perfectly lovely birthday party thrown for me by the all-new Oilcan Harry's, hosted by Paula's Texas Spirits and bestowed with divine cupcakes from Delish. I knew I didn't want the huge display that I had last year, where I was cornered outside of the bathroom by well-wishers and never really got to work the room of nearly 600 guests. So this year, I kept the guest list down to 200 of my nearest and dearest, and decked out in my Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman outfit, I was able to visit with everyone there. My mom gave me new boots and a Western belt to wear with my fringed jacket and a wonderfully carved cane from the Ukraine. I was practically a walking advertisement for Beyond Tradition (www.beyondtraditionaustin.com), the truly fabulous Second Street shop full of gorgeous, glorious jewelry. Adding to my own collection of silver and turquoise, I wore a spectacularly mottled turquoise cross and a green turquoise bracelet. Coupled with the shoulder bag that Mark Mueller gave me earlier this year, I was able to be prepared for the new frontier of being 52 years old. Jesus, that's old, isn't it? I'm sure there are some older people – I just don't know any. But with so many dear friends and family with me, I was pretty much in heaven. Ah, another birthday I didn't expect to be here for ....

RUNWAY I jumped when I received the invitation from Greg Boyd at Saks Fifth Avenue to attend the style show at the benefit for Candlelight Ranch. It was at the always stylish Spazio. Beautiful clothes and beautiful models, all adding up to a pretty terrific show (and yes, there was lots of fur). Afterward, we repaired to Jeffrey's with my escorts Jaclyn (Jacki-OH) Havlak and Tabatha Worthy, had cocktails with Dale Dewey and Karen Landa, saw the legendary Johnny Guffey and Mark Ashby, and ended the night tottering off to bed (at someone else's house, of course).