happy
So, here are some pics from my birthday party last weekend!
After a Friday night of debauchery involving a really bad strip joint, then a really good strip joint, then alligator linguine at 3am, Diego and James and I nursed our collective hangovers over a huge brunch at Gravy, stumbled back to my place for some Rock Band, then headed out to Edgefield to meet Nic, Tori, and Steve and Betsy for some pitch'n'putt.
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| The Guys team: Me, James, and Diego (and Steve, who was getting a beer). | The Girls team: Tori, Betsy, and Nicole. |
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After the round, which Steve dominated effortlessly, I took the guys back to my place to clean up for the party, packed up all of the Guitar Hero and Rock Band paraphernilia, and headed over to Nicole's house for the festivities.
Nicole and Betsy and Steve had prepared a ton of food. Steve grilled up burgers, there were cheese and veggie plates, Nic made two pyramids of windex-colored jello shots (vodka AND rum), and baked a huge platter of bacon chocolate chip cookies.
It was a dress-up party, so there were also mods and prom queens.
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Dad, intrigued by the jello shots, ate a couple using a fork, then observed the correct technique as exhibited by Meg, Isaac, and Erin.
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Erin also made some jello shots, shaped as orange segments and cleverly set into orange peels. My Dad didn't need to be shown how to eat those.
Some of the guests ...
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My family ... Dad, my brother-in-law Jason, my little sister Robin, my sister Carin, and Mom. Mom contributed to the decor by bringing a bunch of photos of us kids that Nicole placed around the house. |
| Sandi and Julia. |  |
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My friend Yon. |
| John, and Betsy. |  |
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Shell, with Jeff helping on the Pippi action. |
| Tori, Michael, and Shell. |  |
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Jeff and Sandi. And me. |
| TJ. |  |
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John and Sam. |
| And of course, the lovely hostess. And me. |  |
There was, of course, Guitar Hero. Erin and Steve show how it's done.
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And there was cake! The night of the party was actually Shell's birthday, so there was a cake for each of us.
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Nicole told me that the girl at the place that made the cake recognized the blue dog design from LJ. Small world!
The candles are lit ...
Singing and blowing out candles:
| At some point prior to the drunken melee that followed, I opened presents, with my tongue blue from the cake frosting. Nicole got me a little blue dog. :) I also scored a bottle of scotch, a bottle of port, two bottles of wine, a gift certificate to Walgreen's, books about pornographic origami and building a robot army (!!!), gum, a cigar, some desk toys, and, of course, everyone's company. |  |
Shell brought tequila, and we started doing shots. Sam, whose birthday is next week, also joined us, opting instead for Kahlua. Other folks joined in sporadically. Betsy put on her 90s hip-hop playlist, and things got jiggy in the kitchen. And blurry.
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Erin, Isaac, and Justin, being the hippest guests, started the dancing, but took off before everyone else joined in. |
| The first (or second, or third) of several shots. Here, I instruct Shell, Sam, and Sandi on the proper way to do a tequila shot without lime or salt (even though we had both). |  |
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Biggie Biggie Biggie, can't you see ... |
| Then Sia showed up, and the party really started. |  |
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Everything's hilarious when you're drunk. |
| Really hilarious. |  |
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Jeff joined for this round of shots. |
| Then started lovin' on the ladies. |  |
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I think I was grabbing his nipple, or something, in this shot. |
| Maybe I pinched too hard. |  |
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It's getting hot in heah ... |
| At one point I had to lean on the fridge for a while to stay upright, but apparently it didn't stop me from bustin mah moves. This is me and Betsy. I love this shot. |  |
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I think in this shot I'm showing Sam how to get your eyes to gleam demonically while throwing the horns. Or maybe she was trying to show me the Bon Jovi Rock Lock, not sure. |
| Whereza muhfuggen tequila. |  |
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Ah, there it is. Or was. |
After the guests started leaving, we migrated downstairs to join the Rock Band heroes for a few selections. Diego was on bass, James superbly handled the drums, and Steve was on lead guitar. I did "Sabotage" and absolutely shredded my voice as a result.
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To be honest, I don't remember much after that, but it had been a long night, and was my best birthday party yet. I'm grateful to everyone who helped arrange and celebrate it with me. I'm especially grateful to Nicole, my super incredible girlfriend, and to Betsy and Steve, my fantastic friends, for arranging everything. It was perfect.
