The Birthday Post: I'm 24!
My birthday started with a very late morning. I woke up at noon, as a matter of fact... figuring that my parents would already be up, and there would be presents on the table, and my mom would do her "happy burt-day" thing (it's an inside joke in my family, but she rarely pronounces the "h" in birthday). But when I woke up, to my surprise, I was the first one awake. My mother had started to show symptoms of the cold that I had... so she was sleeping in. And my dad is my dad... so he was sleeping in, too. I was awake for about half an hour on my birthday before anyone else woke up.
When they finally did get up, we sat around the kitchen table and had left-over Christmas dinner. Odd for a birthday morning, but it's what I wanted at the time. And I flipped through the channels and settled on an episode of MacGuyver. "MacGuyver's cool! Don't die MacGuyver, you faggot!" Heehee. I LOVE MacGuyver... and it's a TV show that I really think should be out on DVD. I think I've bitched, I mean blogged, about this before. But as all sorts of crappy shows are coming out on DVD... where's my MacGuyver? Come on! It was a "supposed haunted house" episode with... get this... TERI HATCHER! I forgot she was on that show. She played MacGuyver's friend, Penny Parker, and she was even a recurring character.
Watching MacGuyver again was so exciting that I actually had to take a quick nap afterwards. No, seriously, we all took a quick nap after MacGuyver. My mom was really feeling badly, and I was still tired... hence the nap.
After the quick nap (no, seriously!) I went to Meijer and Staples with mah Dad. We basically just bummed around, but he got me a couple of things I really needed. And then he got me Anchorman just because I really wanted it. "Happy Birthday" he said, when he got it for me. Aww. I know.
My mom was feeling so badly that, when we got home from errands, it was apparent that we were going to have to do something else for food. My mom had planned on making my favorite meal (I think it's my favorite meal... I don't know): fettuccine alfredo with chicken and broccoli. But I noticed how poopy my mom was so I suggested that we order a pizza and watch Anchorman together. Everyone thought that was a good idea, but they had to... as it was my birthday and I was King. My mom seemed to like the movie... and my dad was asleep by the end of it.
When the movie was over, I called Nate back... as he and Jason were getting together and they called me during the movie. But, before I left, I had a very quick present opening. I know my parents are spending a lot of money on me here in Chicago... and it was apparent when I opened the presents. I got jeans, a sweatshirt, a t-shirt, a SpongeBob sponge, SpongeBob Cheez-Its, and an IOU for the first season of MacGuyver. The good news is that MacGuyver IS coming out on DVD. AWESOME! But I felt really bad... guilty... for making my parents spend so much money on me during the whole year. I don't know... I guess I'm being a bastard? But the fact that I didn't really get anything for my birthday makes me feel really guilty for all the money they spend on me the rest of the year. And it just reiterated my need for steady employment once I get back to Chicago. I'm a waste of money.

After the presents, I headed out to Nate's. He, Allison, and Jason were already there and they almost immediately started playing Settler's of Catan when I got there. It was not the first time I had ever played that game. I actually played that game with Bob AuFrance and Miss Laura Kraly. This brought back memories of Laura, and the nights we spent hanging out at Bob's. Good times. Good, good times. Especially if I wasn't beating Laura at whatever we were playing.
As we were finishing Settler's, Ken got out to Nate's. He had been watching a movie with his family and got to Nate's pretty late. The five of us then played the 301 dart game. I think Nate won... and won pretty easily. Then the four "men" played cricket, on two teams of two. It was Ken and I vs Nate and Jason... thus renewing the long-time rivalry of Aryans vs Jews (this made a lot more sense when I was bleaching my hair). This may sound lame, but I don't care: when playing with only two teams, cricket is INTENSE. I don't care how lame you think it sounds, it's true. Every throw counts... especially since we're all good enough to kind of plan how we're going to play... but we're not good enough to hit our target every time. The first game came down to the bulls-eye. Ken and I had closed it out, but were behind in points. Jason and Nate had to hit three bulls-eyes before we hit three. It became excruciatingly intense... every throw potentially bringing the game to an end. It was so much fun.
While we were playing cricket, Nate's dog Abby came in. Abby and I go way back... she was bought for Nate our senior year of high school after his first golden retriever, Angel, died. Angel used to run around in the backyard with us... she seemed to always get the ball for us when we played baseball with a tennis ball in his back yard when we were in elementary school. And, by the time we were in high school, she would hobble up to my car when I came over and I would pet her... always the first to greet me. She seemed to like me and I certainly liked her. But she passed, and then Abby came. Abby has been energetic since I've known her... irritatingly so at times. Sometime in college, Nate showed us that Abby will hump his leg for no apparent reason. It's honestly hilarious... and she'll continue humping the air if you pull your leg away, but hold her front paws up in the air. When Nate pretends to hump her (also hilarious), she growls and tries to move away. I don't know when it happened, but one day Abby started humping my leg as well. At first it felt weird and I didn't like it... but now I actually feel pretty privileged because she'll only hump my leg or Nate's leg... and no one else's. And it makes me laugh and laugh whenever she does it. Anyway... so Abby came in when we were playing darts, and I was about to throw, so I had an idea. I got her to start humping my leg and then I threw all three of my darts as quickly as I could, while trying not to fall over laughing. I got a spit-take out of Jason, who was drinking water at the time and almost drowned... and we all laughed and laughed. It was like old times... but different. Not different bad, just not something that we ever did before. It was good. Old but new. I miss those guys.