November 21, 2008

  • I am now officially 30 years old! My fourth decade began yesterday. Despite Graham's dire warnings that my body would fall apart, I woke up with all body parts attached and functioning. I spent that daytime in a normal fashion: getting my teeth cleaned by my hunky new dentist, grocery shopping, doing laundry, emptying the recycling, doing the dishes, and intending to go to the gym but not actually getting there. (I was doing so well until I took my east coast trip this summer, but now I go to the gym about twice weekly, and weight train only once weekly. Must fix that!) The real birthday stuff happened in the evening.

    I had a coupon for a free movie admission valid only on my birthday, so Gilly and I saw Zack and Miri Make a Porno. I had expected it to be funny, but oh man, it was hilarious! Gilly and I laughed out loud many times, right from the beginning of the film. Typical Kevin Smith fare. I recommend you see it.

    After the movie, we went to bellydance class. it was our last class in this session, and our last class with Reggie until the fall. We had fun but also had a poignant slightly teary moment as we left, as Reggie is ill and will be leaving us for medical treatment for quite some time. We will stay in touch by internet and possibly see her at some point, and she's running the Shimmy-a-thon again in February, and we're definitely going to that.

    After dinner, we met Al at Casey's restaurant so I could get my cheap birthday meal. They give you up to $15 off an entree on your birthday. It was good, and we had a good chat, and then came home and ate chocolate-covered sponge toffee. Mmmm....

    So it was a good birthday. However, celebrations have been stretched out all week. Last week I was in Newmarket, and Mom loaded me up with presents such as a food processor (something I'd asked for), a bellydance costume, some chocolate, and a Pennington's gift card. On Saturday night I had a party at the Penny Whistle pub in Guelph, which was awesome. About 15 people showed up, including friends from Newmarket and Scarborough that I haven't seen in ages. I was already drunk when I got there, thanks to Chris' previous gift of 84% rum that I had been drinking at home. My friends were buying me drinks at the bar, and the waiter brought me a Sicilian Kiss shot as well. Very yummy! I missed the spectacle of the large stack of dishes being dropped and broken while I was in the ladies' room, but was thoroughly amused by the chaotic mess when I came out and saw the aftermath. We stayed there until about 11:30PM, at which pont we headed to the Manor for some stripping entertainment.

    Unfortunately the Manor no longer has male stripers. We found this out when we arived. We decided to go in anyway, an I'm glad we did. It was fun watching the girls dance, and realising that I do some of those same moves in bellydance. Chris was promptly coaxed into a private room by one of the girls, and he came out some time later with a disgusted look on his face. The stripper has encouraged him to touch her breasts, and he was horrified at the feeling of the hard implants. She tried to get him to go upstairs with her, and he was so grossed out he refused. She said "Merci" as he was leaving. He said "Oh, you're bilingual. What language is that?"

    "Spanish," she replied.

    So I gave Chris a fully-clothed lap dance and humped his leg, and he laughed. As he was leaving the next morning, I wished him happy birthday in the elevator (his is a week before mine) and said "Here, grope some real boobs!" He took a good feel and everybody laughed. There were six of us in the elevator at the time, and we'd just come back from breakfast at Country Boy. So a good time was had by all!

    On Wednesday Michelle took me out to Pizza Hut for lunch, since she was unable to make it to the party. It was great to have a chance to talk to her again, as we don't get to see each other much these days. She gave me a card with a duckling "whispering" in a cat's ear, which was quite funny to look at. We stuffed ourselves with pizza and stayed there long after the buffet closed.

    Wednesday evening I went to an atheism meetup. I'm not an atheist, but my belief in a higher power is abstract and not tied to any particular religion. Graham has been telling me about the discussions they have, and it sounded interesting so I decided to check it out. I was the second person to arrive, and was chatting with Scott when the Guelph crowd came in together. Graham handed me a Peoples Jewellers box and said "happy birthday." I laughed when I opened it and found two belly rings inside! One was black with a bunch of rhinestones on it, and the other was silver with a blue-stoned lizard hanging from it. It was a great idea, as I don't wear much jewellery normally, but I'm always looking for interesting belly rings. The only trouble was my piercing is deep so I can't wear banana bells, and that's what these were, so when Graham asked about the size and so on being OK he said we can go back to the shop and see f we can exchange them for something that will fit. I liked the choices he made though, they were really cool!

    So I'm 30 now, and I've really enjoyed the extended celebration with so many people I care about. I'd say this was one of the best birthdays I've ever had!