It has been a really excellent birthday weekend; I will try to keep my story concise!



On Friday afternoon, a delivery guy showed up with six large Mylar birthday balloons. I signed for them and they turned out to be from my parents; getting them home was an adventure! It was windy as I walked from my building to the metro station, but then when I ran to catch the train I made it in and the doors closed with the balloons still on the outside. I yelled for somebody to press the emergency call button but the train didn’t stop, and we went from McPherson Square to Farragut West (a very short journey) with my big balloons bouncing between the train and the tunnel wall and each other. I was sure they would be ruined, but when the doors opened again they came inside and were just fine, as good as they had been. My girlfriend was waiting for me when I stumbled out of the metro station, carrying my balloons aloft; we went to Tequila Grande which is one of my favorite restaurants. (It’s not necessarily great quality, but I do like their food and I suppose they’re reasonably priced.) We both ordered mango daiquiris and I indicated it was my birthday so I could eat free; our server took my driver’s license to the manager but I’m not sure if they were checking that I was 21 or just that it really was my birthday.



We spent essentially all of Saturday inside, because it snowed heavily overnight and in the morning. I was supposed to go see my parents but we postponed that till Sunday, and instead we went to That’s Amore to have dinner with my girlfriend’s family - :MK: and I were both born on the 18th of January, so the dinner was for both of us. I ordered a Cosmopolitan (and didn’t get carded) while we were waiting for our table, but it was very strong so I didn’t really like it. When we were seated and had received our appetizers, I figured I would try to hurry up and finish my drink so it would be gone - forgetting that I didn’t like the taste because it was alcoholic! Apparently I get the giggles when I am drunk, because that’s exactly what I did. I couldn’t stop giggling, and :MK:’s boyfriend tormented me and even took a picture (oh dear). Finally I quieted down, and by that point our entrées had arrived but all I could do was stare at it for several minutes. It felt not unlike when I’d taken acid - I lost the ability to move and any sense of time; finally my girlfriend fed me a bite of tortelloni and that snapped me back to reality. We rented a couple of movies and I drove home through snow-covered streets - I was quite sober at that point, but my girlfriend wasn’t at all - barely breathing the whole way. When we got home I opened the present my girlfriend’s parents had gotten for me - the musical Hello Kitty toilet paper dispenser. The picture really doesn’t do it justice, this is about eight inches tall and it plays “It’s A Small World” in a very loud electronic tone, and two tiny LED lights on Kitty’s bow flash. It’s truly an amazing item. We watched Best in Show and went to bed.



This morning - Sunday - I woke up early and had some food, then went back to bed expecting to sleep as late as I liked. My girlfriend woke me a few minutes after 10:00, because apparently we were due at my parents’ house at 11:30 and they live an hour away - I hadn’t remembered setting the time with them! I promised to drive, and brought a couple of CDs with me (Dido’s No Angel and the Office Space soundtrack, which my girlfriend had surprised me with Friday night). I got to open my present not long after I got there, and found that my parents had gotten me A DIGITAL CAMERA! I was really excited and jumped all around and wiggled about a fair bit. It’s an Olympus D-510 Zoom and while I haven’t really looked it over yet I can tell it is awesome. I am truly thrilled! We went to my favorite Chinese place from when I lived with my parents, but I wasn’t too happy with my mock chicken in black bean sauce. I did get a pineapple daiquiri - they didn’t card me either - but it wasn’t very good. Back at home my parents had gotten a chocolate mousse cake at my request (my mom had one for her birthday and I’d loved it) so we had that and headed home. Because X-Files wasn’t on we watched Trekkies instead, and then a couple of specials about the Egyptian pyramids before going to bed.



I can be awfully wordy sometimes - I think that was pretty concise by my standards! Hee.



Right now I’m reading news articles about the Internet Archive, which has snapshots of my website - the front page, at least - dating back to late November 1999. I’m not sure I’m thrilled by this, but I’m reading about it and I’ll consider blocking their spiders. We’ll see.