Thirty-Five

Last Friday marked thirty-five years of me walking the earth. It was probably the most low-key birthday I’ve had in a decade or two; maybe the quietest since Susan and I celebrated the event alone in 1996 and 1997, the years we spent living away from home in Spokane, Washington.

My co-workers who were stuck out of town with me in KCMO last week took me out multiple times for my birthday last week. “Let’s go to the casino … for Rob’s birthday!” “Let’s stop by the bar … for Rob’s birthday!” “Let’s go out to dinner … for Rob’s birthday!” Normally I would eschew such attention, but among our group “for your birthday” generally translates to “we’re buying you drinks!”, so my protests were intentionally inaudible. For what it’s worth, the Embassy Suites in Overland Park, Kansas has a fantastic open bar for a couple of hours every afternoon. In theory there was supposed to be some sort of system requiring patrons to show their room keys and exchange tickets for free drinks, but we never experienced any of that; instead, we simply received a steady stream of free drinks for two hours every night. For my birthday, of course.

In Kansas City we ended up with two rental cars for eight of us, which meant confusion during each departure as to whom was riding with whom. On the way to dinner Thursday night (after the two-hour Happy Hour had ended) I ended up a car with Curlen (an Atlanta native), Earl (an Atlanta transplant from Michigan) and Thuan (Los Angeles). I had threatened to bring my MP3 player (full of heavy metal, rock, and old school rap) along with me, and during this particular trip, I had. (Curlen’s car came equipped with an iPod jack.) Since all four of us are roughly the same age and the other three are all hip hop fans, I broke out some old school rap and, with the windows down and the radio cranked all the way up, the four of us cruised through downtown Kansas City, singing and rapping at the top of our lungs. I haven’t had that much fun in a long time and I really felt something — although by that point I had downed six or seven Rum and Cokes, many of them doubles and triples, so maybe that’s what I was feeling. Either way, I had a blast last week hanging out with everybody and really getting to know some of them. It never fails that things like technology and music can cross pretty much any social barriers.

I spent the first five hours of my birthday driving back home. Upon arriving in town I met dad, and the two of us went out to lunch at the Elephant Bar. What was kind of funny was I ate dinner at the Elephant Bar in KCMO the night before, but I couldn’t make up my mind between two dinners and so I finally just picked one. So anyway, I got to have the other one Friday for lunch! The Elephant Bar is far enough away and expensive enough that any time I go there is a treat.

Myspace, cell phone text messages and e-mail has really lowered the bar when it comes to birthday wishes — I probably got over 50! Hallmark had better get into the e-card business, quick.

Birthday celebrations were short-lived. Upon my return to the city I discovered not one but two broken computers belonging to other people waiting for me to fix. First up was Stephen’s, which had so many viruses that you could literally see other people connecting to his computer and doing things. I worked on his machine Saturday night from 7:30pm – Midnight and left it in worse condition than I had found it in. The other machine belongs to Morgan’s daycare. The hard drive crashed on it and I’m supposed to see what I can recover off of it. Currently it’s hooked up on our kitchen counter, and I’m supposed to fix it before Monday morning.

Like an old Midsouth Wrestling Tag Team event, I arrived back just in time to “tag” Susan on her way out of the ring … er, house. We said our “hellos” and “goodbyes” quickly as she grabbed her bags and headed to the airport on her way to DC for a week. I think the kids’ heads are still spinning, but they’ll get used to it.

No rest for the wicked. Back to microwaving TV dinners and loading the dishwasher.