My 25th Birthday passed much like my 19th...maybe a little too similar...
I took Friday off from work to prepare for the marathon weekend that always accompanies birthdays. Hindsight - being the visionary that it is - told me that I should've taken today off instead. Agggggg.
The weather was horrible, with the exception of Sunday (of course). My car finally went in on Friday to have the CV joints replaced, and I got an unexpected birthday present from the friendly neighbourhood mechanic...to the tune of $1130 big ones. Turns out some doohikey called a Control Arm also needed replacing. Happy Happy Birthday to me...needless to say, I had to officially cancel the upgrade for my pump (please observe a moment of silence at this time). C'est la vie...or in this case, thanks a lot oh fickle bastards of fate!
Friday night was dinner out with the family and significant others. I drowned my financial sorrows in a big plate of seafood and a megasized Sunset Passion Colada at Red Lobster, complete with lobsterbeads (some day I'm going to make a killing selling those bad boys at a garage sale!).
Prior to dinner was a very memorable first telephone conversation with two of my best internet buddies (in some instances via translation lol). Guys, if I could afford it I'd be down for drinks and girl conversation (heheh) like yesterday! Bellini's on me! (I choose not to disclose names without prior permission, but y'all know who you are, eh??)
Saturday was a continuation of the Birthday epic as well as my never ending bad run of luck. In Alberta, Diabetics are required to renew their Driver's Licence every year, complete with a ridiculous Driver's Medical that costs a whopping $60 (ridiculous because it's simply a questionnaire filled out by a physician that involves no actual physical documentation). I had my Medical done late Friday afternoon in anticipation for renewal on Saturday at the local registrar's office, which I've frequented on weekends for years. As luck would have it, I pulled up to the door on Saturday morning (expired licence and all) to a big note saying:
"The office is now closed on Saturday's so that the staff may enjoy the summer months. Thank you!"
Argggg. Who do these wacks think they are taking Saturdays off? One would assume they are Government employees...because of this, I was forced to drive into the city on a Saturday (traffic central) without a valid licence. I left town thinking to myself : "the way my luck is going, some idiot is gonna take me out on the way to the registrars..." and I came that close. Some blonde in her SUV didn't shoulder-check on the freeway before deciding to take a little jaunt into my lane. Apparently she also had selective horn hearing. Meanwhile, I was chewing on my heart and thinking the ditch was looking like a great alternate route. But, in the end, I made it unscathed and am licensed to drive for another year.
Next on the schedule was an afternoon fighting the crowds at West Edmonton Mall. That behemoth of a shopping mall where one can shop all day without actually seeing more than a quarter of the building...ride in a submarine...go ice skating...shoot guns...watch the latest movies on the big screen (complete with a pre-show, life-sized fire-breathing dragon)...sit in a Hummer...play a round of Miniature Golf...and if that's too pedestrian, there's also an amusement park, an indoor waterpark with forty gazillion slides and a wave pool, and of course a very posh hotel complete with theme rooms. It's a tourist's Mecca. It's a royal PITA. It used to be coined the Eight Wonder of the World. I just go for the shoes.
The big party was full-tilt, Saturday night. Karaoke at the bar, complete with free drinks for the birthday girl. I got pony pitchers, I got shooters (na na nanananana, Tequila!!), I got a song dedicated to me (loved it!) and I got a very sore neck. Some incredibly humiliating pictures were taken and I'm pleased to say that the keeper of the camera was so drunk herself that she exposed the film and blackmail is no longer a worry. I could never want a better Birthday present than that! And, as icing on my cake, I did not have a hangover the next day (HA!) in spite of worshiping the porcelain shrine that night. That's right, I'm still the drunken champ! (seriously, I'm never doing that again, and I mean it this time!)
So there it is, the 25 year mark passed in a haze of liquor and shopping...no great quarter-century epiphany (with the exception of the fact that I'm becoming a cheap drunk). But it was a hell of a lot of fun, and that's what Birthday's are about. Good drinks, good friends, good phone conversations, good family, and good not-so-clean fun.
I'll drink to that!
"Twenty-five years and my life is still
trying to get up that great big hill of hope
for a destination"
My 25th Birthday passed much like my 19th...maybe a little too similar...
I took Friday off from work to prepare for the marathon weekend that always accompanies birthdays. Hindsight - being the visionary that it is - told me that I should've taken today off instead. Agggggg.
The weather was horrible, with the exception of Sunday (of course). My car finally went in on Friday to have the CV joints replaced, and I got an unexpected birthday present from the friendly neighbourhood mechanic...to the tune of $1130 big ones. Turns out some doohikey called a Control Arm also needed replacing. Happy Happy Birthday to me...needless to say, I had to officially cancel the upgrade for my pump (please observe a moment of silence at this time). C'est la vie...or in this case, thanks a lot oh fickle bastards of fate!
Friday night was dinner out with the family and significant others. I drowned my financial sorrows in a big plate of seafood and a megasized Sunset Passion Colada at Red Lobster, complete with lobsterbeads (some day I'm going to make a killing selling those bad boys at a garage sale!).
Prior to dinner was a very memorable first telephone conversation with two of my best internet buddies (in some instances via translation lol). Guys, if I could afford it I'd be down for drinks and girl conversation (heheh) like yesterday! Bellini's on me! (I choose not to disclose names without prior permission, but y'all know who you are, eh??)
Saturday was a continuation of the Birthday epic as well as my never ending bad run of luck. In Alberta, Diabetics are required to renew their Driver's Licence every year, complete with a ridiculous Driver's Medical that costs a whopping $60 (ridiculous because it's simply a questionnaire filled out by a physician that involves no actual physical documentation). I had my Medical done late Friday afternoon in anticipation for renewal on Saturday at the local registrar's office, which I've frequented on weekends for years. As luck would have it, I pulled up to the door on Saturday morning (expired licence and all) to a big note saying:
Argggg. Who do these wacks think they are taking Saturdays off? One would assume they are Government employees...because of this, I was forced to drive into the city on a Saturday (traffic central) without a valid licence. I left town thinking to myself : "the way my luck is going, some idiot is gonna take me out on the way to the registrars..." and I came that close. Some blonde in her SUV didn't shoulder-check on the freeway before deciding to take a little jaunt into my lane. Apparently she also had selective horn hearing. Meanwhile, I was chewing on my heart and thinking the ditch was looking like a great alternate route. But, in the end, I made it unscathed and am licensed to drive for another year.
Next on the schedule was an afternoon fighting the crowds at West Edmonton Mall. That behemoth of a shopping mall where one can shop all day without actually seeing more than a quarter of the building...ride in a submarine...go ice skating...shoot guns...watch the latest movies on the big screen (complete with a pre-show, life-sized fire-breathing dragon)...sit in a Hummer...play a round of Miniature Golf...and if that's too pedestrian, there's also an amusement park, an indoor waterpark with forty gazillion slides and a wave pool, and of course a very posh hotel complete with theme rooms. It's a tourist's Mecca. It's a royal PITA. It used to be coined the Eight Wonder of the World. I just go for the shoes.
The big party was full-tilt, Saturday night. Karaoke at the bar, complete with free drinks for the birthday girl. I got pony pitchers, I got shooters (na na nanananana, Tequila!!), I got a song dedicated to me (loved it!) and I got a very sore neck. Some incredibly humiliating pictures were taken and I'm pleased to say that the keeper of the camera was so drunk herself that she exposed the film and blackmail is no longer a worry. I could never want a better Birthday present than that! And, as icing on my cake, I did not have a hangover the next day (HA!) in spite of worshiping the porcelain shrine that night. That's right, I'm still the drunken champ! (seriously, I'm never doing that again, and I mean it this time!)
So there it is, the 25 year mark passed in a haze of liquor and shopping...no great quarter-century epiphany (with the exception of the fact that I'm becoming a cheap drunk). But it was a hell of a lot of fun, and that's what Birthday's are about. Good drinks, good friends, good phone conversations, good family, and good not-so-clean fun.
I'll drink to that!