39 and Holding

Hey Gang... First of all, I want to thank everyone for the warm birthday wishes. For being out here 'alone', it's actually been a better birthday than I imagined.

After work last night I met up with Stephanie for drinks. But she'd been conspiring before I got there and had a few surprises for me. So I got to the bar, and a few friends of mine were there, and of course my money was no good. Even better, Timmy the bartender had procured a six pack of Michelob Light, which no bar in Vegas offers anymore (everyone now serves that watery Ultra shiat), and had put it on ice for me.

So while we were drinking and laughing and telling stories and such, Steph disappeared into the kitchen while I lit up one of my Partagas Black Labels. Suddenly all the lights in the place went off and I saw her coming out with a huge cake with a veritable forest fire atop it. Yep, she had to buy pretty much every candle at Walgreens to make it accurate, but she did a fine job. Everyone was singing and I was just a bit embarrassed--it caught me totally off guard. They told me to make a wish, and after I blew out the candles, I told her and Jen that after the cake was gone they'd have to come over to my house and, you know, fulfill that whole birthday wish thing...

Stephanie, Mikey, and Jennifer, version 2006. There is a 1985 version out there floating around in the fog of memory, but most of the details have been lost to history...

Upon closer inspection, it turns out that I wasn't a traditional birthday cake, but one of those huge cheescakes that had like three or four pieces of four different varieties. But Steph had decorated and personalized the top of it with melted white chocolate, making it look like a regular birthday cake. When I asked her, 'Why a cheesecake?' She said that she was planning on making me a cake earlier that day, but she really needed chocolate this weekend, if I get her drift, and a double fudge white chocolate mocha cheesecake would help to keep her in a better mood.

Yeah, so the birthday wish is gonna have to wait a few days...


I also had a few birthday cards to open, which was nice. One of them has a big shiny sticker in it that says "It's my birthday, wanna spank me?", so I'm gonna take that to work tonight and wear it as long as I can before getting in trouble with the shift boss.

The card from Steph had a 'Lucky' $5 bill in it--our usual weekend ritual is to put a $5 bill into the bartop machine and play quarter video blackjack. Every time we play together, we've always won. If she plays alone, she loses. Same with me. But when we play at the same time, we've always done well. We jokingly consider it our 'special time' together, and have now convinced each other that we cannot play video blackjack without the other one being present. Well, true to form, we turned the $5 into $14, gave two bucks to the bartender, and I pocketed the $12. So today for lunch I bought a carne asada burrito and a huge fountain Coke at Roberto's Taco Shop. Thank you Lucky Five Dollars!

After the cheesecake was divied up among everyone at the bar, we headed down to shoot some pool. And of course she beat me two-out-of-three, again. I swear I suck at billiards, but I take comfort in the fact that if somebody is a good pool player, it's a sign of a misspent youth. Take that, Steph!

Before we knew it, it was seven in the morning and the sun was already up. A quick check of my phone showed several missed calls already, the family being two hours ahead back in Tennessee. Of course the birthday tradition in our family is to race to see who can call the earliest in the morning and leave the cheesiest message.

Like Matt Dillon said in Something About Mary, I love those goofy bastards!

Anyhow, we said goodbye to everyone and headed for the door. Steph mentioned something about going bowling tonight after I get out of work, so we may do that. Also, some of the folks who didn't make it last night want to go out again tonight, so it might be another long one, and I can already see myself not making it to school tomorrow.

Once I wake up tomorrow, I'll recount some of my other memorable birthday experiences from years past--there have been a couple of pretty interesting ones.

In the meantime, be careful out there and avoid eating in restaurants on Monday--all the illegals are taking to the streets, so there may not be enough clean dishes to go around.

Mikey