Sunday, November 14, 2004

Silver...

It's that time again. What time you ask? Time to look back and think about what I have done with my life.

You know, when you think about it, a birthday is an odd day to celebrate. Why do we cheer the fact that someone is older? I guess it's a way of telling someone we are glad they are around and in our life and the day they were born is something unique to them. I have a good day for a birthday. Many of my friends have a b-day close to mine. I find many people have mid to late November b-days. This, I think, is due to the holiday nine months prior; Valentine's Day. But this is off topic.

My birthday did not start like others. My birthday is November 11, A.K.A. Veteran's Day. Usually, I sleep in. I get up when I feel like it. I have a nice slow breakfast and think about what I want to do until later when there will be cake and presents. I chose to go to a private school that is apparently not very patriotic. We don't get Veteran's Day off. We do get every Hawaiian day invented off. I don't know if Prince Kuhio, Kamehameha and Liliokalani all should get me days off when Columbus or Martin Luther King Jr. could not. I say this under the guise that I care about my American heritage and such, but I really feel slighted that I don't get my birthday off any more.

I woke up and took a long test. I am just glad it is over and I am pretty sure I have another 100% in the bag. I had one hour off between classes and was planning on just skipping my class, but Anna called and asked if she could use my camera about lunch time. She was to meet me in front of my next class, so I went. It was genius on her part. I came to class since I had to be there to give Anna the camera. As I walk in, she walks up to me in my class and puts a large Oreo Cherry cake down, lights the candle and starts a singin’. Only Anna, her roommate, Farrah, and the two girls at my table knew my name. That made it real funny when the crowd sang, “Happy birthday dear…hmmm, hm, hmmmmmmm. Happy birthday to you!”


Clogged arteries pre-consumption


After lunch and Anna was out of class we saddled up, took JD’s car keys and we were off to Kaneohe. We went to the mall, got a shirt that reads, “Property of Anna” which I wear with pride regardless of the fact that we already broke up. I like it, and I will wear it anyway.


Nine tenths


We saw “Shark Tale” which was funny and all, but I just went because I wanted to sit next to a hot chick in a movie with stadium seating. It was all that I thought it could be. We ate Panda Express and we were off…but wait! There’s more!

Anna saw that some old farts were enjoying a hootenanny of fun line dancing. Ya, She made me do it. It was fun. Mostly, it was all for the pics. I was not very good, Anna had never done it before either, but once I started to get the moves, it wasn’t all that bad.


Jared Line Dances (when the tongue is out, you know he is concentrating)



Anna Line Dances


We got back and my fellow RA Richie gave me a vintage “Ren and Stimpy” comic from 1993. It was the one where Powdered Toast Man battles Spiderman. Nice! JD tells me that I have to go to Erika’s work at 10:30 for a surprise party for Anna. I think I had a hunch that it was not for Anna. I went to my lab for a minute to set up for the early morning I had ahead of me teaching class at 7am. On the way I ran into Shem. He said Fei was looking for me. I thought I could call her, no answer. I figured I could find her at Erika’s lab. Once in my lab I ran into Justin. He asked me what I was doing there as he heard there was something for me at Erika’s lab. I went.

When I got there it was almost empty. eHarmony was there, Rachel was there, Erika or Fei was not. At 10:45pm Fei walks in with some 2 liters and big bags of chips. She was devastated. “What is he doing here?”

I was not supposed to be there yet. She was upset that her suprise was totally lost. She looked like she was about to cry. I was. I went after her but she didn’t want to talk.

"I can be surprised, I swear!"

She left.

By 11pm she came back as did others. I waited outside for them to set up my “surprise”. I came in and WOW! I never would have guessed.

"What?! A surprise party?!"


I was so surprised I had a heart attack just like my dad.

Heart Attack


It was fun either way. Fei was disappointed that she didn’t surprise me, but I told her, “Don’t worry; when I saw you come in and give me that look, I was most definitely surprised!” I think that at least salvaged it.

Following the surprise and singing came the gifts.


One fine day...



How did they know what I wanted?



Protecting women from chaffing everywhere...it's...THONGMAN!



We got kicked out and went to the little theater to watch Shem entertain us all.


Shem's Post Party Show


I walked Anna home when security chased us home like rabbits in the garden. She gave me a pimptacular remote control watch/calculator. It is a universal remote with learning capabilities. Basically, you can teach it to control any device that has a remote control. Too cool.

I was beat when I got home, but it was great and well worth it. I was afraid that I would not like my birthday. When we where hanging out by the little theater someone asked me how it felt to be a quarter of a century old. I am not sure. 25 is the silver anniversary. I am too young for that, right?

Someone volunteered, “That means that a fourth of your life is gone already!”

Su came to my rescue, “Well, probably less, you are just hoping to even live to be 100 years old.” Thanks Su.

What have I done in my 25 years? I am still single. I have only had 2 girlfriends, all in the last year and a half, both for less than two months each. I had a job with a real career on the way, but I gave that up. I have family, but so far away it makes it difficult to keep close. I worry about money a bit. I’m not poor, but not too affluent either.

Everyone wants to be rich and famous. I think it is fair to say that I am not on the list of those who have made it. I am okay with that. I didn’t get too much, but I didn’t expect much. I just wanted to be happy. This year, having that in mind, I decided to be just that, happy. As a result, it was a good birthday. I realized that even though I was silver on the calendar, I can still feel like gold on the inside. I have not built up an empire of fame and fortune, but I have built up an empire of Jared, his friends and his family. That is good enough for me.

For more pics, go to this link.

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