I guess it's about time

I guess it's about time I tell you about my birthday. My actual birthday was last monday, and because I knew my 21st here wouldn't have the same meaning as a 21st in the States, I just wanted to do something where everyone could have fun, and not just have it revolve around getting as tanked as you can. I can do that anytime, anywhere here, so I wanted to go up to Surfers Paradise and see what there was to see. So that's exactly what we did. A small group of people got together and we all set off up the coast around 8 at night and made it up to surfers in about an hour.

I had two main things I wanted to do: 1) Go to the arcade 2) Go to the casino. We were all a bit hungry when we got up there, so we stuffed ourselves full at Oporto and then went to play some video games. They have a pretty good deal where for $15, you get two hours. The first hour you get unlimited video games, and in the second hour you get to do bumper cars, putt putt and laser tag. Most of our time was spent playing Time Crisis 4, which will absolutely blow your mind, so we were well warmed up when it came time for the laser tag. We busted some heads, and I came out second out of everybody, so I felt like a virtual badass.

After that we drove over to Conrad Jupiters which, if it isn't the only, is probably the most popular casino in Surfer's Paradise. They have some really annoying jingles on TV, so we figured it had to be good. And it was. It was really nice and we had a lot of fun. I won't say how much I won or lost, or how much was spent on drinks, but I came out of the evening looking pretty good. When we looked at our watches, it was already 3 o'clock and we figured it was probably best that we leave then before the tables turned on us.

So it was a good birthday. I had fun, and so did everyone else, so I was pleased.

Then last night we had a huge barbecue. This is something that Melisa and I had been planning for quite some time. Her birthday is tomorrow, so we wanted to have a little joint celebration right in between the two days. So for the last week we started spreading the word around town about the party, and we were expecting a packed house. When we went to the grocery store, we didn't hold back. We bought about 11 pounds of ground beef, about 50 sausages and a couple packs of chicken legs, along with countless bags of chips, boxes of potato salad and some baked beans for good measure. All in all, we hauled back $160 in supplies.

And then there was the alcohol. We told everyone to bring their own, so we didn't really have to worry much about it, but I was feeling a little bit risque on that night and I wanted something a little bit different, so as I was browsing the shelves at the liquor store, I stumbled across a bottle of absinthe. You know what? Why the hell not? I picked it up, along with a box of apple juice for mixing. Everyone was warning me to be careful of it and not to drink it too fast, and once I mixed it up, it was so yummy, I thought it might be a problem, but it was alright in the end, as you'll see in a minute.

So people started showing up around 7 when they were getting hungry, so I fired up the barbecue and threw some meat on. It was cooking nicely and everyone was starting to have a good time, but there was one problem. It was a beautiful night out and everyone wanted to sit outside in our backyard, but we really only had a small table and 2 chairs out back. We started to worry about what we were going to do, when not more than 2 minutes later, some friends come running in the door saying they have my birthday present out front. If that's not making me skeptical... So I go out front and there's a truck parked there and two huge guys are unloading tons of junk. They take down a table, 6 chairs and a old blue refrigerator that the guys had been using for bait, and they were giving it all away for free! Now this is just too perfect. We take the table and chairs out back and voila! It's absolutely perfect. We even hooked up the fridge in the back too, and it works! It even became a favorite seat for people that needed to cool down from dancing too much.

So more and more people kept coming and the grill was spitting out food left and right, trying to feed all these people. Here I am, drinking my absinthe and apple juice, and it starts giving me this incredible energy! I'm running through the house grabbing things that people need, flipping burgers, greeting people at the door, everything! I even went inside and got to dance some. I was having a great time and people kept telling me how great everything was. I was smiling from ear to ear. So once we got some food in everyone, the consensus view was that we should go to the beach for some fire twirling.

Luckily the beach is within walking distance, so we all made it over there safely and started up a bonfire. It was warm out so people were dipping their feet in the water and having a good time, at least until one of the mexicans tried to do a cartwheel, and ended up putting his hands right into the fire. I wasn't there, but I heard that it was a) funny as hell and b) bad enough that he had to go to the hospital. So some of the people left, and I was stuck down there with my feet in the water, staring up at the sky. Apparently the absinthe had super-sensitized my entire body, so I was listening to the shooting stars, and I could feel the waves hitting my feet throughout my entire body. It was creepy how much control I had over my environment.

So I snapped out of my daze and realized that about half the people had left already to go to the hospital, and everyone else was kinda wearing thin. We gathered our things and came back home to our messy house. Chirag put on some Pink Floyd, and we sat around for maybe an hour more, just talking about life and girls.

It's really impossible to fully describe how great the night was, and there was lots of pictures, but apparently Melisa deleted them by accident this morning, but I'll see if anyone else had some. Luckily everyone had a good time and I still got to enjoy myself while working my ass off playing host.