I'm That Much Closer to Death, But It Was Fun

You read it right. It's my birthday. I would usually make an attempt to not address it in writing, but today was kind of special. You see, the girl threw me my first ever surprise party. It was awesome. She also got me Wii Fit, tickets to see DC United, and tried to get me racing lessons, though that's still in planning. She knows me so unbelievably well. She's the bestest.

The surprise party rocked. She asked me where I wanted to go, and I had no preference, so I proceeded to list every place I could think of. I missed this one. You see, I never think of Japanese food because the girl doesn't do sushi. I know you can get other things, but we usually equate japanese and sushi (despite me having been there and not having had much sushi). So, we went to a hibachi place, which is like Japanese-ish. The irony is that I was talking with Karina today, and stated that we pretty much ate exactly the same stuff except for sushi. She must have been ROTFL (I feel dirty having said that). Kohnkes, Sandrew, and Amanda came to the party.

We then proceeded back to the house, had ice cream cake from the ice cream store, told lots of dirty jokes, and watched some Jonathan Coulton videos. I feel fantastic.

I usually also try not to make enumerative posts, but I really wanted to write this all down, and I'm not feeling excessively wordsmithy today. It might be the excessive sugar, or the multi-tasking.

There's a little more, but that's for me to know :-)

Originally, I was scared of this birthday. I've been reflective of late. In seeing this particular milestone approach, I have had trouble with the positive. I did not think at any point in my life that, by the time I was 29, I would have had arthritis, depression, and lost a child. Nobody expects things like this. My childhood feelings of invulnerability are gone. I've been scared of this one in particular. I can't imagine how hard next year will be.

I'm lucky, though, to have such great friends; both those who could make it, and those who couldn't, but I know were thinking of me. Thank you everybody. You've helped take a day I've lived in fear of and turn it into one of the more positively memorable days I've had in quite a while.

Wonderful Weekend Woes

Weekends should never have to end. The previous one doubly so.

Why, you ask? Well, maybe you didn't, but you're going to learn anyway if you continue to read.

Forrest came down. I always enjoy it when he does. He came for the Jonathan Coulton concert at the Birchmere on Thursday. What a wonderful coincidence that it corresponded with Memorial Day weekend.

For the rest of the weekend, the poor cars must have gotten sick of seeing Virginia. I had to work on Friday, but everybody else went sailing with Laura. Saturday, the Mini got to see both IHOP and Great Falls, VA. No, we did not drive the Mini into the IHOP, though it probably would have fit. It had to wait outside.

We also saw Star Trek, which was very awesome. It was like a masterfully played chess game. It took the future, full of old people, and turned it back on the past, full of young people, entirely changing history and paving way for remaking the original series (if the creators so desire). Just poetic in its execution.

The Girl's car also got to see Baltimore. Sunday, we went to Brew at the Zoo, which was nice in that we got to try a lot of local brews. Subsequently, we returned to Amanda's and began brewing a vanilla porter.

I really wish the girl hadn't been sick. I felt as though she was just chauffeuring us all over creation this weekend. She maintains that she didn't feel that way, and that she had fun too, but that doesn't change my supersensitive inhuman ability to feel things in a way that always makes me feel guilty or lessens my enjoyment.

Despite that, it was an awesome weekend. It ended on Tuesday, of all times, with Forrest and me playing Smash Brothers. I can imagine no better end to it. And with that, I take my leave.

Spawn of Satan

The girl and I got to hang out with Irene tonight. It was fun. Irene made a tasty meal of risotto and salad, and for dessert... tiramisu. I love tiramisu. Then we hung out and talked all night. Irene's a ball of fun. She has some interesting qualities too. Somehow, you can get her to laugh to the point that she does all of laugh, hiccup, and burp simultaneously. It's one of the funniest things I've ever heard.

The other bit of humor involved her stomach. It seemed to speak all night to the point that we figure she's going to spawn the anti-christ sometime in the near future. "Mwarwarmwarwar..." All night long. It's pretty impressive. Then, when the hellspawn comes, her completely perfectly circular toilet will probably eat it and send it back to hell.

It's been an interesting night...

Helpless Bystander...

It's hard to watch a friend in pain. It's harder when it's more than one friend. It's even harder when those friends are some of your dearest friends, and some of the best people you've ever known. It's even harder when you realize that, no matter how good a friend you want to be or can be, that really nothing you can do can make them totally better. Feeling useless is about on par with me to feeling confused and not understanding. So, to all of you who are in pain, I'm sorry that I can't make everything better for you. I can promise you, though, that it will be better, and that I will do everything in my power to make that happen as quickly as possible. If I try too hard and annoy you, just remember that it's because I love you all.