Our CSI Las Vegas Chapter turns 25 this month! President Paul Ricciuti, Vice President Jorge Schapira, and the entire chapter will welcome members, former members, and guests for a night of remembrance. The event will be on February 12 at the newly opened Smith Center for the Performing Arts in downtown Las Vegas. There is a great fly-though of the lobby and concert hall at http://www.thesmithcenter/com/explore/.

CSI President Greg Markling (Denver Chapter) will attend as will many CSI friends (like me) from across the Southwest Region and Institute. Guest speaker Senator Richard Bryan also signed the chapter charter as Nevada's governor in 1988. It will be a great time and thanks to all chapter volunteers in putting the event together.

Whenever we recall the start of something important like our relationship with spouse/significant other, a CSI chapter or other organization, or just a personal milestone or benchmark, the anniversary date is very meaningful. It tangibly connects us back in history. It may take us to the origins of a life-changing event or to when other people made an important decision that affects us still today. Many of us celebrated the 200th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence in 1976.

Anniversaries can be somber events such as remembering this year the 10th anniversary of the Columbia space shuttle disaster on February 1. May heaven help you if you forget an anniversary on February 14th. Some anniversaries are just curious. February 2nd is the annual and odd celebration of Candlemas. What, you say? I mean Groundhog Day, of course, as it later came to be known. From an old English poem "If Candlemas be fair and bright, Winter has another flight. If Candlemas brings clouds and rain, Winter will not come again."