I don’t have a really smashing opening for this entry, so I’ll just say this. I had an AMAZING time for my birth-weekend. It started out with a pub crawl down in Deep Ellum.

Lee and I got the the pub crawl late; however, we were able to follow the horde of people walking around Deep Ellum wearing the same T-shirt with the words, “Pub Crawl” on them, figuring that this is where we wanted to be. On the walk to our first pub, we met up with two ladies that were quite intoxicated and when they found out Lee’s name, one of the girls got really upset because her X-fiance was named Lee and then started to get upset at Lee for stealing her motorcycle and breaking her heart. (All playfully so.) So, the crawl was off to a good start.


We got to the first club and met some very beautiful and interesting people. The Coors Light girls were there; however, they had enough makeup on that made me hope that Clairol wasn’t flammable. I found out that they were passing out “Hello” nametags and got someone to give me on. (Some of them were “Ivana Pearl Necklace” and “Kanigo Downonya” A bit disappointed with, “Never had an Orgasm” I realized that this could turn into a benefit since it was my birthday. (Just kidding mom! 🙂 ) Some of the women were interesting to talk to, and some of the women were a bit too tipsy. At some point, we decided to blindfold Lee and have him pin the tail on the Enron Executative. One thing that was great was that some people, despite the cold weather, dressed up in semi-traditional Irish garb and others decided that they were too sexy for it. But all in all, the boys had a grand ol’ time. The slogan for the night was, “10 Bars, 250 People, Many Blondes, No Waiting”


When Lee and I ended the pub crawl, we realized that I no longer had my camera and had no idea where it could be. I was a bit bummed, but not discouraged. After talking to “The Librarian Girl”, (The one touching her boob.) and some searching, we found that They Might Be Giants were playing right next to us the entire time. Almost worth missing the pub crawl, but not quite.


We got back to home safely, after using Whataburger to dilute the blood in our alcohol stream and kept chanting out ourselves, “Good Pub Crawl.” At that point, around 2-3AM, I went to sleep in my own bed.


Around 9AM, I woke up and couldn’t go back to sleep, so I joined my friend Angie Champion for an adventure down to the St. Patrick’s Day Parade. (Since I didn’t have my camera, I don’t have any other pictures. Sorry.) We had a good time looking at the variety of floats, including the “Heterosexual Men In Favor of Moustaches.” “Beware of the Mullets” and “Drunks Against Madd Mothers.” And low and behold the same Coors Light girls from last night. We ended it with a friend of Angie’s buying me lunch and sharing decorating ideas.


I got in time to start cleaning the place up for the real party. Slowly, but surely, people started to wonder into my house and realize that this is the place to be for a good time. There were about 30 people there and after people started to leave, I broke out the Twister mat and the Twister contest began. Little did I know that as I was stepped out of the room that the grand prize was my house. I came back into the room to find out that Frank Fu was now the proud owner of 769 Panorama. I demanded a grudge match.


Things started to look dim for our past landlord, but then Mr. Fu made a critical mistake. With one foot on blue and one foot on yellow, I had to move my hand to blue and he tried to prevent me from doing so by pushing his body as high as it could to, which left his underside open, where I quickly got a hand on the situation and was able to use my leverage to push him up, over and off the board. Huzzah! The house was mine again!


Disco Stu also made an appearance and got the house and a lot of bootie shaking.


I started to get tired and found a friend of a friend (Cathy) sitting on the couch and plopped my head in her lap. Our mutual friend (Suzyn) then mumbled something about getting tired and then plopped herself between me and the back of the couch. Needless to say, I was in 7th Heaven. Cathy then proceeded to give me the best face massage I had ever gotten my entire life. Slowly people started to leave the party; however, I was too intoxicated, not by the alcohol, but by the position that I was in. Around two PM, the last of the people left and I was still enjoying myself with my head in Cathy’s lap and Suzyn cuddled by my side. Before my blessed friend Lee left, he did one of the coolest things. He took my other couch and set it right next to the couch I was currently lying on so make a big bed…to which Cathy was able to lie down beside me. God Bless You Lee!!! This is the point where I should have gone to sleep, but couldn’t so, because I was too happy.


Cathy and I stayed up early talking and enjoying each other’s company and did sleep for a little while before they had to leave to go back to Austin. (They drove all the way over, just for the party.)


The next day, I attempted, poorly, to clean up and just walked around in a daze, saying to myself, “Good Party.” I later saw Resident Evil, which was a good movie, especially since I hugely lowered my expectations, because it was a movie based on a video game.


I found out that people are STILL talking about the party and how much fun they had. I also feel so blessed that I as able to have such a great party and have such great friends join me at it.


To quote my best friend Lee…”It’s allllll good.”

Birthdays. 
You get one once a year.  And after a while, you get numb to them, and I’ve
heard that at some point, you actually start dreading them.  Thankfully,
I’m not going to be one of those people.  Each one of my birthdays will be
a blessed and sacred event that I spend with the people closest to me.  And
last night, I was lucky enough to create one of those events for someone
else.

At Mary’s wedding (see “Mary’s Married”), a close friend of mine, Sherri
Zeitman said that she wanted a surprise birthday party since her birthday
was next week.  So, I, along with a few other cohorts, gathered up some friends
of hers and planned an adventure for her.  It started with her finding a
Kidnapping Letter
attached to her door after the doorbell rang at her house at 7PM.  (At the
time, she was expecting Chuck Sutherland to pick her up.)  After waiting
for a while, I walked into her house to find her awaiting her captor.  I then took her by the hand and escorted her to my car where I never said a word.  After she was secured in the car
and unable to hear me conspire about what was next, I then called Chuck who
in turn talked to Sherri and told her that she was on a “Mission”, if she
chose to accept it.  And she did.  Chuck then told her to let the force guide
her.

I got in the driver seat, highly amused that I had made it this far w/o
messing anything up and drove over to Mindy and Shelia’s house. Along the
way, I kept performing “reality checks” on myself and couldn’t stop laughing. 
Here I was, driving a Landmark Education Self Expression and Leadership Program
Leader, blindfolded, in my Saturn and my only method of communication with
her was through motioning her arm to represent “Yes.” or “No.”, laughing
and writing letters on the palm of her hand.  She then started to tell her
captor (me) that she was really scared and excited at first; because it was
like being in one of the Teen movies.

When we arrived at Mindy and Shelia’s, we decided to make the most out of her unaware state and take a possible blackmail picture.  Little did I know that the pictures taken later on in the evening would be all the more incriminating.  We unmasked Sherri, got a great look of surprise and delight on her face and had fun drinking wine and champaigne before heading out to Abacus…home of the worlds greatest cheese fries.

A great time was had by all at Abacus as we wined and dined on some of the greatest food, deserts and cherry’s I had had in a long time.  The best picture of the night:  Smile, my gorgeous ladies.

You can find my picture album for this, here.

The prize winning photograph. 

Yesterday, along with about 70 other people, I witnessed the marriage
of someone very near and dear to me and someone who I believe will cherish
and love her for the rest of his life.  Congratulations Mary and Richard
Ameredo. (sp?)

I used to think that only women thought about things like this, but I
then started thinking about my own marriage.  Who would it be?  How would
the wedding be?  Who would be my best man?  Would Pastor Bill do the sermon? 
Where would it be?  If I plan to get married, then I better find a church
here to call home, else I’ll be looking pretty out of place having the marriage
in my house, because I’m not a member of any other church.

In any case, I realized that I was thinking too much and by that time
the wedding was over and Sonny came out from behind us playing bagpipes,
indicating that the ceremony was over and that we were supposed to get to
downtown for the reception.

The reception was one of the most fun I have had in a very long time. 
It started off with an open bar.  (And it ended with taking a bottle of champagne
and going to Zeitman central (where I find myself now) and talking all about
Europe and my adventures there.)  There were a lot of Landmark people there
and of course, we were all VERY self-expressed and later owned the dance
floor.  I found myself very tipsy at the beginning from two bottles of wine
and no food in the last 6-8 hours.  I was enjoying myself very much, but
very cautious every time I walked near the beautiful cakes, afraid that I
would become the token clumsy fool that tripped into them after paying more
attention to a beautiful woman walking by me than my own feet walking in
front of me.  Even in my “more than tipsy, less than drunk” state, I was
able to avoid disaster and certain embarassment.

I will admit that I look forward to my wedding.  I look forward to meeing
the person that I will intently look at with both eyes in front of an audience
of about a hundred people and say, “I do.” and then know that for the rest
of my life, this woman will light me up, turn me on, make me do the “Dance
of Joy” for as long as we both shall live.  Yes, I know that like any relationship,
my marriage will go through hard times.  It will go through REALLY hard times. 
Hell, it’ll go through times where I will wish that I had that device in
Men in Black where I would forget the about everything; however, I KNOW that
I have the tools to make the relationship work.  And if I can find someone
with tools of her own, I think we’ll be set for life.

Marriage…How ’bout them apples.

NOTE:  I finally wrote down my My Theory of It.  Please read and comment.