October 27, 2025 — My 66th Birthday on the Giza Plateau

You know that moment when you wake up in a new place and it takes you a minute or so to adjust your brain to catch up with your eyes? Well, I woke up on my sixty-sixth birthday to a view that felt like a dream—the Great Pyramid of Khufu rising into a soft Egyptian sunrise, its edges glowing gold against the morning sky. From my balcony I could see all three pyramids lined up across the plateau, timeless and silent, and for a moment I simply stood there, overwhelmed by the beauty and the fact that I was really here, in Giza, on this day of my life.

Later that morning I met my wonderful guide, Dalia Dod, who led me out onto the plateau itself. We walked across the ancient sands, stopping often as she shared stories about the pharaohs, the workers, and the astonishing precision behind these monuments that have defied time. I listened, asked questions, secretly proud that I knew some of the answers before she gave them to me, and tried to take in every word.

Then came a surprise moment of pure joy—I reluctantly climbed onto a camel and rode slowly across the open expanse, the pyramids towering behind me. I laughed, held on tight, and felt utterly alive. I knew exactly what was happening at the exact moment it was happening. It had taken a year and a half of planning but I was finally laughing without worry on a camel named Michael Jackson.

But the highlight of the morning was stepping inside the Great Pyramid of Khufu itself. The narrow passageway rose steeply, and I had to crouch and catch my breath more than once, but when I reached the King’s Chamber, My quads were on fire , but I felt a rush of awe and gratitude that words can barely express. Standing there, surrounded by stone that has stood for nearly five thousand years, I thought about time—how small and yet how connected we all are to the great span of human history. I've always been lucky to be very good at freezing moments in time in my life and filing them away in my brain. Very clear, and very sharp memories that will live with me for the rest of my life.

I remember thinking to myself as I climbed out that anything that happened from now on was a bonus as I had just completed my dream come true. How lucky can a guy get?

It was a morning I will never forget—the perfect beginning to a birthday unlike any other.