In which I talk now.
Feb. 20th, 2009 11:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bzarcherWhen I was a kid, I was the poster child for socially awkward. (Shock!)
Somewhere along the way, I got the idea that I could fix that by trying to have an amazing birthday party. If I could do something so awesome that everyone had fun and could see all the neat stuff I liked, everything would be great, and I'd stop getting hit. (It will probably also not surprise you that I got hit a lot.)
I tended to try to do things that I'm sure drove my parents batshit. I wanted to have slumber parties. I wanted to go to chuck e cheeses. I wanted to try to get everyone to go to Silver Ball (a big pinball and video games arcade that used be near where I lived). I wanted to go to the movies. I wanted to rent a Super Nintendo, back when that was really expensive and difficult. I designed invitations on the computer and printed them out so I could give them out at school.
A few of these went OK and I got some new friends out of them. The majority were either attended by a small core of friends and we had fun, but I felt a little disappointed, or on a couple notably bad occasions every single kid I had tried to invite would decide not to come and I'd be left disappointed and crying. My family would do something for me, but I was pretty crushed that I didn't have a single friend who wanted to do something with me for my birthday.
Somewhere along the line, I grew up quite a bit, and I learned a lot about how throwing parties doesn't make people like you. I learned a lot about how friends will like you, and what you do, without needing a crazy production made out of it.
More importantly, as the joke goes, I told you that story so I could tell you this one.
Yesterday night, while I was celebrating with people after the Jackets game, Dave Wyatt came up to me and asked, "So, any plans for your birthday?"
Because I'd been planning a lot for going out to dinner on Saturday with my family while juggling a pretty busy week at work and at home, I really hadn't thought of doing something tonight, and was being honest when I said, "Um...well, I need to do laundry."
Dave kinda gave me this half smile, half sigh, and said "C'mon. It's your birthday. Let's go out and get dinner, at least."
How do I turn down an offer like that?
I said yes, and as a small army of comments amassed in my email, LJ, twitter, and facebook today with birthday wishes, a few other people asked if they could drop by and go out tonight. We got together at the house and BSed a bit while I tried to figure out where to go, and we settled on hitting the new(ish) Old Bag Of Nails that had opened over in Olde Hilliard.
As we waited for a table to open up, we clustered into a little knot near to the door where we told jokes, we swapped some stories, and generally went back and forth with little to no reprieve for anyone. As we finally got seated, a round was ordered, and happily consumed. Appetizers were shared, and if anything, the jokes just got more frequent as we tore through a few more drinks, a meal, and dessert. Somewhere along the way we peer pressured Elissa to putting a scoop of vanilla ice cream into her guinness, and the alchemy that resulted was delicious.
We tromped back to the house, full and gleeful, and enjoyed some more jokes and trying to find what was decent on TV, and settled in for The 5th Element. Eventually, it was decided that it was time for bed when I started giggling at the Lowes commercials, and people made their ways home.
No planning. Barely any preparation. No convoluted plans. No invitations designed on the computer.
Oh, and I still need to do laundry.
And y'know what?
I can't think of a better way that I could have spent my birthday with friends.
Thanks, everyone. :)
Somewhere along the way, I got the idea that I could fix that by trying to have an amazing birthday party. If I could do something so awesome that everyone had fun and could see all the neat stuff I liked, everything would be great, and I'd stop getting hit. (It will probably also not surprise you that I got hit a lot.)
I tended to try to do things that I'm sure drove my parents batshit. I wanted to have slumber parties. I wanted to go to chuck e cheeses. I wanted to try to get everyone to go to Silver Ball (a big pinball and video games arcade that used be near where I lived). I wanted to go to the movies. I wanted to rent a Super Nintendo, back when that was really expensive and difficult. I designed invitations on the computer and printed them out so I could give them out at school.
A few of these went OK and I got some new friends out of them. The majority were either attended by a small core of friends and we had fun, but I felt a little disappointed, or on a couple notably bad occasions every single kid I had tried to invite would decide not to come and I'd be left disappointed and crying. My family would do something for me, but I was pretty crushed that I didn't have a single friend who wanted to do something with me for my birthday.
Somewhere along the line, I grew up quite a bit, and I learned a lot about how throwing parties doesn't make people like you. I learned a lot about how friends will like you, and what you do, without needing a crazy production made out of it.
More importantly, as the joke goes, I told you that story so I could tell you this one.
Yesterday night, while I was celebrating with people after the Jackets game, Dave Wyatt came up to me and asked, "So, any plans for your birthday?"
Because I'd been planning a lot for going out to dinner on Saturday with my family while juggling a pretty busy week at work and at home, I really hadn't thought of doing something tonight, and was being honest when I said, "Um...well, I need to do laundry."
Dave kinda gave me this half smile, half sigh, and said "C'mon. It's your birthday. Let's go out and get dinner, at least."
How do I turn down an offer like that?
I said yes, and as a small army of comments amassed in my email, LJ, twitter, and facebook today with birthday wishes, a few other people asked if they could drop by and go out tonight. We got together at the house and BSed a bit while I tried to figure out where to go, and we settled on hitting the new(ish) Old Bag Of Nails that had opened over in Olde Hilliard.
As we waited for a table to open up, we clustered into a little knot near to the door where we told jokes, we swapped some stories, and generally went back and forth with little to no reprieve for anyone. As we finally got seated, a round was ordered, and happily consumed. Appetizers were shared, and if anything, the jokes just got more frequent as we tore through a few more drinks, a meal, and dessert. Somewhere along the way we peer pressured Elissa to putting a scoop of vanilla ice cream into her guinness, and the alchemy that resulted was delicious.
We tromped back to the house, full and gleeful, and enjoyed some more jokes and trying to find what was decent on TV, and settled in for The 5th Element. Eventually, it was decided that it was time for bed when I started giggling at the Lowes commercials, and people made their ways home.
No planning. Barely any preparation. No convoluted plans. No invitations designed on the computer.
Oh, and I still need to do laundry.
And y'know what?
I can't think of a better way that I could have spent my birthday with friends.
Thanks, everyone. :)
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2009-02-21 05:44 am (UTC)Happy birthday :)
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Date: 2009-02-21 05:50 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-02-21 05:58 am (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2009-02-21 06:10 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-02-21 06:11 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-02-21 06:23 am (UTC)And enjoy Cleveland and the Epic Dinner therein!
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Date: 2009-02-21 06:26 am (UTC)I'm really happy I helped make your day better. Thanks again!
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Date: 2009-02-21 07:01 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-02-21 03:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-02-21 02:13 pm (UTC)Happy Birthday!
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Date: 2009-02-21 03:05 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2009-02-21 03:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-02-21 03:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-02-21 04:38 pm (UTC)Also, Fifth Element FTW! Azziz! Light!
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Date: 2009-02-21 04:40 pm (UTC)Thank you, Azziz, that's much better...
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Date: 2009-02-21 04:47 pm (UTC)Seriously, kid, you deserve to have a great birthday, and I'm glad you had one :)
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Date: 2009-02-21 04:51 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2009-02-21 06:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-02-21 06:44 pm (UTC)I did MY laundry, though!
Uh, negative. I am a meat popsicle.
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Date: 2009-02-21 06:45 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2009-02-21 06:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-02-21 10:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-02-22 06:42 am (UTC)SCIENCE!
Thanks again. :)
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Date: 2009-02-23 12:47 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-02-23 01:04 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-02-23 02:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-02-23 03:07 pm (UTC)This will sound funny, but the next place I -really want to eat- is the Five Guys they opened up around Polaris. Maybe we can go get a burger and a beer or something. :)