Maybe a few months ago, Tim reached out and asked if Embers wanted to get back together for a late summer gig. We got together in May to dust off some songs for our release party in June, and then was all done until earlier this month. We started getting together to rehearse for our reunion show, taking place last night.
Earlier this week, they said tickets were low and within the last day or so, the club was sold out! Two sell outs this year for me, that must be a first.
New dragon strap for the new bass
Saturday was spent playing with the new bass, testing out my new bass with my bass amps, heading to Guitar Center to buy a new strap for the bass, then waiting until it was time to head to Ballard for soundcheck as I was backlining my rig. So that meant leaving the house around 4:45 for a 5:30 arrival time.
Marci was coming, and I got her a guest spot, which was great as all sorts of people were hitting folks up for tickets. I had committed to getting Mike and Amy a couple passes because we love them and other issues, so my people were good. Had to do some gymnastics to get Ian in the room for photos as Will forgot to get him one. Luckily my new buds in Seola Station (Ruth) was able to make some magic happen as she purchased extras just in case she had people that wanted to go. Pro move!
Marci and I pulled up to the Sunset right behind Tim and Kay. I gave him a hug and quickly gave him an old Matchbox VW GTI I had. Since I no longer have a GTI, I figured he should have it as he bought one last year when he came into some $$. He and I both loaded in and then reparked our cars and we were good to go.
Imagine my surprise when I got there and Robb's little buddy, Chris, was there (sarcasm). I don't remember him in the previous Embers days, so this may have been his first show. He's just so squirmy, I don't. I am not trying to be mean; I just have no patience for him. As I was trying to get my amp on stage, he was just oddly in the way. Ugh.
Anyway, we set up for soundcheck. I brought my Avatar 212 and Orange Terror Bass. I was supplying bass backline stage right, by the bar and backstage entrance. I strapped up the new P bass and tried it out and immediately, low signal. It may have been the same input jack thing I had happen the other day. After jiggling it around, no change, so I busted out old Goldie and we got to work.
Soundcheck pic featuring the Professor
After soundcheck, Marci grabbed me to go to KAVU down the street, she wanted an opinion on a backpack she liked. She got it and then we went to dinner next door. Ran into Ben London there with his wife and son. He wasn't coming to the show as his son was leaving town the next day so we just said hi. After dinner, we grabbed a molten chocolate cake down the block and snapped a pic.
I was a bit antsy to get back to the club so I left Marci there to finish her treat and ran into Patrick, Kathy and Reb from Golden West. Having played with Kathy and Patrick before, it was nice to be on the same bill with them and their band. I had met Reb a few months ago at the Conor Byrne show and really liked her vibe and energy. Kathy snapped a pic!
After so many years of playing out, I'm finally feeling like I'm part of the scene. I know people, they know me and generally speaking, we like each other. It's really cool!
Finally I made it inside and got to catch a few songs by Seola Station. At soundcheck, when I thought I'd be offering my rig, I spoke with their bassist, Brian, who said he was gonna use his own rig as he likes being stage left and didn't want to move my stuff. Then he busts out the killer Mesa 12/15 mini stack and I figure that I'd want to use that if I had it too.
Epic rig!
Seola Station was cool. There's a description of their music as smoky and sultry, and that's pretty accurate. Ruth, the singer, was a knockout in heels, a slinky dress and really unique vocals. Low register, singing but almost spoken, very neat. Her band was tight and energetic as well. Really enjoyed what I saw and heard.
Seola Station
Marci and I did head backstage and chill for a bit, trying to get people to enjoy some cupcakes for Cass and Tim's birthdays. Her and I chopped it up with Patrick a bit, talking about backyard wildlife, of all things. I shared my Dodo the cat trauma from earlier this summer. It was just nice to chat and hang out and see our friends.
Hooray for cupcakes!
Hooray for Marci and I!
Pro stage plot diagram for Seola Station!
Golden West took the stage next, with Kim V on lead vocals, Patrick on slide, Kathy on lead guitar, Emily on rhythm guitar, Reb on bass and the great Aimee Zoe on drums. Watching her play was a joy, reminded me of my obsession with Anika Nilles. Same joy on her face as Anika's. Really cool! Reb played some great lines and the band was just fantastic. Marci and Emily talked for a bit before their set as she's from Cincinnati, so they talked about Riley's adventures out there, it was pretty funny.
Golden West!
During their set, I got to see a bunch of folks: Steve and Salena, Andi, Howie, Scott Woods, Pete Nordstrom, Dave Place, Lisa Gordon, Will Wiles, Dan Lancaster, Rob Dent, Ben Heege, Charles and Cindy, both Robb's sisters, Renee and Ruthie, Steve Schneider and Michelle from way back, maybe some others I'm forgetting. Just a love in, it was great!
Once GW got off the stage, we got setup and then had a band meeting like Tim likes to do. He gives a quick pep talk and then we jump back onstage and do our thing. All my stuff was working, from IEMs to wireless guitar and it was time to go. Hit the stage running with Game Changer, into Tomorrow, which we never played back in the day.
From Teddy Laabs
Both songs went pretty well. I could hear myself fine, it was the playing that was tough at first. I didn't really warm up and as soon as we started playing, I was just pumped. All the moving around makes it hard to pick accurately, but I think I was likely the only one that noticed. More missed notes than wrong notes, so that's good, I suppose.
For Cass' and Tim's birthdays, Robb and Darla bought some party favors and he passed them out to all the people, so after our 3rd song, Sideline, everyone sang them happy birthday and then blew the blowers. It was pretty sweet.
Happy Birthday to Cass & Tim!
Initially at practices, I was playing all the songs with pick, after never having done so in the past. It was fine, but on some of the slower songs, Break This Down, Pull, Road Song, I decided to go fingers. Same with Boom, though last night I switched to pick mid-song as it was just too fast and I couldn't keep up. I ended up doing Chimp with fingers as well, I think it just flows better.
Overall, pretty pleased with how we played. I think there were some clams here and there by all of us, but for our first show back, not too shabby. A bunch of great pix were taken, let's take a look. First up, Mike Mitchell's pix.
Next up, Howie Cohen's pix.
This might be my favorite picture of the night.
As of now, there are tons of pics of us but not a lot of videos. Funny thing, our friend Bob Mattson came out to shoot GoPro vids as he's done before. He got set up early and then went to dinner. Before long, Cass reached out to me to ask where Bob was. Apparently both SS and GW hired camera crews as well and they wanted the spots where Bob hid his cameras. He was kind enough to come back and accommodate them, but it was sort of a pain.
Speaking of videos, our pals Ted Laabs and Will Wiles posted vids. I'm expecting Bob's as well as Derrick's in the near future, as well as any more that may pop up.
As far as future SE shows go, nothing's in the books. We have talked about it and we feel good about more. As far as new music? Who knows? I know Tim has stuff he wants to bring in but we'll have to feel it out as a band and see how it is. I think we've all grown and if we can settle whatever happened in the past, there may be some hope. Especially if we can sell out shows on the regular? Maybe we play once or twice a year, make it a can't miss prop, vs a "we can catch them next month" type thing.
And now, that's a wrap on gigs. Nothing officially booked for me as of right now. Grooves may have something in a few weeks, more details on that soon, supposedly.
This one was a private party for a 40th birthday. We had never played the Old Stove (didn't even know what it was). The husband hired us for an 80's themed party so we tried to dial up our 80's tunes. Left the house at 2:40 and headed to Jen's to load out.
We had to provide a PA and lights since this brewery didn't offer either, so we had to load out all the stuff. It's a pain, but it's what we do. Our sound guy also bailed at the last minute, so luckily Dennis was able to handle the duties.
The Old Stove is only about 5 minutes from Jen's so we got there and loaded in. The place was ENORMOUS! They had the brewery/event space where we were playing, a more proper bar/restaurant, and then on the other side of that, a outdoor garden/patio space. The host had rented the event space and that's where we set up.
Halfway through setup.
Once we got the gear ready, Dennis dialed us in. Since the place was all hard surfaces and concrete, it was SUPER BOOMY. I really had to dial back the bass frequencies on my guitar. I cranked the bass knob to about 10% and just trusted the FOH sound. Sounded fine through my IEMs so I just went with it.
L-1000s for daysss.
As we were handling that, people started showing up. Lots of kids. The party planner had put out a tub of inflatable musical instruments (guitars, saxophones, mics, etc) and before long, these kids started running around and smacking each other with them. It was quite hectic, but they had nothing else to do while they waited for the party to start.
Madness.
We planned 2 sets, as well as throwing in "Birthday" by the Beatles. We've played a few birthday parties and never had a birthday song set, so we learned this one a few weeks ago.
Set one we played in full. I felt pretty good about the performance overall. For some weird reason, though it wasn't hot out (mid-70s) and indoors wasn't bad, I was roasting. Sweating like crazy. And my hair was all in my face, so that was annoying as well.
The Hog sounded fine in the IEMs. I had single-coil switch on the whole time to reduce some of the bass tones. It seemed thin at times, but I just worked with it. Everything else was fine, it was all fine.
We took a quick break, hit some of the buffet food (mac n cheese, nachos, chili, cornbread), grabbed a drink, and then back to work with "Birthday." As we played more and more, it was pretty clear people were leaving as it had been a few hours by now. Kids were still running around and going nuts, so we cut a few songs from set 2 and then ended it.
The husband and wife (her birthday) who hired us were super stoked for us and it was nice to celebrate with them. Overall, it was a nice night, but they never get any shorter, do they? Another 7.5 hour event, from leaving the house to getting back home.
After load out.
Next up, Monday Night Football with the Sunset Grooves at the Central, 10/20. Stay tuned.
I literally can't remember what I did for my birthday last year, but for this year, Haley came down from Western to visit. So that's a good start. But that wasn't until afternoon.
I got up and had breakfast. Austin had brought cinnamon rolls from the bakery in Bothell, so I had a bunch to bring home. Good news is there was treats. Bad news is I'm the only one who eats gluten, so it's a bit much for one dude. Still, I'll take it.
Opened some gifts (orange OR hat that matches my green and white ones; that was returned later in the day for an REI smaller hat for running. A James pocketknife, some Marine Layer socks, cash from Judy, a weird snapback Mariners hat from Riley) and ate some food. After that, I had said I wanted to go test drive cars, but I'm sort of putting that off. Would be cool to talk to an "expert" in EVs (eg: salesperson) and learn stuff, but I didn't feel like it. Instead, I tried to super glue a small pot of Marci's I had broken. When I realized I couldn't, I looked at the maker's mark, then realized it was up in Snohomish, so off to Snohomish we went.
40 minutes or so later, we arrived at the pottery store. Haley bought the pot for Marci last year, but it wasn't from there, but one of their resellers. We browsed around and Marci got a new mug, an orchid pot and I got her a new pot to replace the one I accidentally broke.
We reparked and walked up and down the main drag in Snohomish. Pretty enough little strip, very similar to Grand Junction. Lots of antique stores and restaurants. My bro Taylor H. suggested a place called Grilla Bites, that had a lot of GF options. Marci and I both got turkey sandwiches and then walked around some more, before getting some ice cream before heading home.
My man Riley turns 4 today. It's kind of funny. 4 years ago, we were able to pick a day on which we wanted Riley to be born as he was a planned C-section. Because Marci was of "advanced" maternal age, we had to keep a close relationship with our OB/GYN. Because of some health issues, it was decided to have Riley via C rather than via V.
I remember that summer was pretty dang hot. Like last week, only for longer periods of time. My father-in-law, Ted, was in town with us for several weeks as Marci was on bed rest and not allowed to do anything but grow a baby. It was great having Ted here. Marci and Haley got some much needed grandparent time and I was able to work without worrying about Marci staying off her feet.
Anyway, Rye was plucked from the womb in the am sometime and I remember he cried quite vehemently, as if he didn't want to be plucked from the womb yet. Little did we know what we were in for...
As we got him home, Haley was super excited about her little bro. She never developed the jealous sibling thing; rather, she loved being with him and being his big sis.
Throughout the years, it became more and more clear that Riley preferred his mother to me by a long shot. We had SO MANY STRUGGLES with bedtimes and separation. Even as recently as a year ago, Riley and I (can I really blame him? He was barely 3!) were fighting nearly every night. We'd have a good day, then, when it came time for bed, all heck would break loose. It was a horrible time for me, and for the family, I think.
Not only that, as Riley grew older, we (Marci, mainly) began realizing that he had certain issues. Most of them I've documented before, but suffice it to say, Riley's seen more doctors and specialists in his 4 years than I have in my entire life.
Thankfully his situation isn't dire. We know autistic kids, kids with deformities, kids with issues that make Riley's look like a walk in the park. So, for that, I suppose we are lucky. Doesn't mean I'm looking forward to his surgery, but you know what I mean.
What's been fun most recently is Riley is he's such an eager boy. He's funny and has a definite sense of humor. He has a lot of things he just LOVES, like Tom and Jerry cartoons, macaroni and cheese, monkeys, playing UNO, and his mom. He loves being with us, which can be annoying at times (sometimes you just want to be alone!), but seeing him shuffle down the hall in the morning for his hug is one of the highlights of my day.
I don't know what turned him around. He's finally able to sleep through the night and that has made a huge difference in our lives. He's finally to go to bed without fighting us (though I think that has more to do with us figuring him out than anything else).
I love Riley how he is now. I love how he talks. It's so cute and endearing, but, ultimately, that's a selfish thing for me. I know that to go through his life with nasal emissions and mispronounced words will lead to heartache and anguish for him, so getting that "fixed" is high on our list of things to do. Throw in giving him the ability to drink water, or use scissors, or not have sinus infections anymore and it makes his surgery a (no pun intended) no-brainer.
I know he'll be a more functional little dude when this is all over. I am excited to share a root beer with him. That excites him quite a bit. He's aware of what's going on and, so far, he doesn't seem worried.
This has been a pretty rambling post. I wanted to celebrate Riley's 4th birthday and I guess I just started rambling. He's super-excited and is so cute when he holds up his 4 fingers to show how old he's going to be. A year from now, he'll be 5 and we'll be talking about how he's about to head off to kindergarten. That's pretty incredible.
Marci's birthday was on Sunday. As is customary in American culture, any woman's birthday over 29 will forever and always be referred to as her 29th, so I guess it was Marci's 29th birthday again on Sunday.
We all had a good weekend just hanging around with each other. Saturday was amazing with the 90 degree weather. What did we do? Go to the mall, of course! Nice, cool and we determined that for Marci to fit in, she's got to slut it up a little. Show some cleavage. Wear shorter shorts. That kind of thing.
I mean, seriously! Not that I'm complaining, but some of the women at the mall looked like they belonged on the street somewhere, and I don't mean in the homeless capacity!
Anyway, Saturday was cool. The kids were good and we filled up the kiddie pool in the back yard. It was a little unsettling, however, to have such hot temps so early in the year. I like to ramp it up over the course of a few weeks, not a few days. As such, I was a whiny little bitch and just hot and sweaty all weekend.
On Marci's birthday we went to yet another mall, this time an outdoor one, to have lunch and use some gift cards she received. I ended up getting her and I tickets to see Cirque du Soleil this coming Saturday. That should be epic and I can't wait.
All in all, it was a fine weekend and I hope there are many more where those came from in the future.
Some cool things happened this weekend. I turned 36, which, to me, is almost 40. And after 40 comes 50. So I guess that means I'm getting old?
I got a few thing for turning 36. I got ROCK BAND. Finally! I got the MUSE dvd/cd pack called HAARP. I got some CASH MONEY. I got some GIFT CERTIFICATES. I will be getting a SWING ARM FOR A LCD FOR MY DESK (my bro works in office furniture).
All in all, not bad.
Oh yeah. My birthday also included an 80 frickin' degree day! Can you believe that? So hot that I was complaining at about 3. So hot that I slept with the bedroom window open. So hot that I was sweaty all night.
Oh yeah. To start the day, after getting gifts from Marci and the kids, I was downstairs hooking up all the goodness that is Rock Band and I heard Marci call for me. Usually when she calls for me, it means she needs me to open a jar or she's hurt herself. I figured it was the latter and headed up. Turns out, she was slicing some bread for French toast and her finger got in the way. It bled like a stuck pig.
Valiantly, I sent her across the street to the old couple who are a retired dentist and nurse. I bravely stayed behind and fed the kids. A little while later, Marci was patched up and not bleeding freely anymore. We headed to the urgent care center in Issaquah later and she got two stitches and a needle of meds DIRECTLY INTO HER CUT. OH GOD, IT HURTS!
For dinner, we met Knight and Shannon and Ruth's Chris and ate ourselves silly on meat and more meat. IT WAS SO GOOD. Yum.
This week should be fun. Lund Bros. tomorrow. Scheme on Wednesday. I love music.
I solicited myspace for someone to help us with Rock posters. A friend of LB responded (who I completely spaced on asking in the first place; I even use his card as a bookmark!) and over the past few days, he's come up with some cool ass stuff. Keep your eyes peeled for some LB rock posters in the next few days.
In the meantime, I'm trying to sell my Ibanez ATK300 bass. I've had it about 1.5 years and it's time to move it on out. I'm thinking of getting another SB-2 (a nice one just showed up on ebay) or possibly chipping my car and making it a little speedier. For $300, the bass is yours. Send me a note.
Perusing the 'bay and saw a pretty nifty G&L SB-2. Glitter yellow, good shape. As of right now, it's a hair over $400 with about 5 hours left.
I do have a birthday coming up.
Strokes chin.
UPDATE: It's a no go on the bass. As much as I loved the color, I love my money more. The bass ended up going for $511 + $55 for shipping. For some time, it was going to be under 5 bills, which would've been a STEAL.
Anyway, I'll keep my eyes out. Maybe after I get paid next week...
No gym since last Tuesday, but Marci and I did do a workout courtesy of On Demand. It was a half-hour cardio workout with one of the trainers, Bob, from The Biggest Loser. I must be a loser because I was sweating like a PIG afterwards. It was actually pretty cool.
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I picked up a PS3 last week for Blu-Ray purposes. I paid less than $50 for it thanks to some timely Best Buy reward zone points. Why PS3? Well, to make a long story short, I could've gotten a dedicated BD (Blu-Ray Disc) player for $399, but all it would do is play BDs. With the PS3, you get one of the best BD players out there, as well as a smokin' video game machine.
Right now, all I've watched is the in box Spider-Man 3 (which, as a movie, was quite the mess) and a few of my standard DVDs. I have downloaded some game demos, but not made any game purchases.
So far, I like the unit quite a bit. The front end took a little to get used to, but I like it a lot. The one thing that sucks about it though, is that the remote (SIXAXIS controller) is Bluetooth only. In other words, the nice Harmony remote I have is incompatible with the PS3. After a few days of searching, I found that Nyko puts out a cheap little IR remote that that works via USB with the PS3. I hit Fry's yesterday and found one and now my PS3 works with my universal remote.
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I've been spending a lot of time up at my parents' house lately. Haley goes there every Wednesday after school and I pick her up. Marci and Rye have been going up there almost every other day as Marci is using their foot bath. It's some device that uses ions or something to remove toxins from the body. I used it yesterday and it was... interesting.
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I played with a decent drummer at church yesterday. It was nice in that I haven't played with a decent drummer since before Xmas with Sean. Sean says his toe should be up to snuff for rehearsal next week. Also, David from the Scheme has contacted me and wants to get things fired up again. Our plan is to have him, me and the drummer, Gregg, hook up next week as well at a rehearsal studio in Bellevue. We'll see how that works out.
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April and May are looking to be busy and expensive months. We have mine and Haley's birthdays. Rush is putting out a new live CD. Friday Night Lights Season 2 DVDs will be released. Marci's birthday is in May. Indiana Jones comes out in May. Rush visits the Gorge in May. Better start saving now, I suppose.
I hate writing titles for the blog. I can never come up with anything witty, so I usually just write about what I'm going to write about. What's the topic today? Nothing special, I suppose; just a recap of stuff since I last wrote.
Biggest thing that happened is that me and the family took a little 3 day vacation to Mt. Rainier. I hadn't been there in a looong time and we took Sunday, Monday and Tuesday of this week to go there. I took many pictures and put some of the best ones here. We had a great time driving up and down the mountain, eating lots of food at the Copper Creek Inn and seeing beautiful sights. To have Mt. Rainier 1.5 hours away is a pretty cool thing.
On the musical side, Sean was finally to nail Jonathan down for some studio time. We'll be going in on 8/26 for me to lay down about 12 bass tracks. Sean sent me some ideas for a great song of his, Only You, as I was having a hard time coming up with a tasty line under the verses. He came up with a great octave type line and I incorporated it into the other ideas I'd had previously. I'm pretty happy with the ideas and I think he is too. Now I just have to nail down what I'm going to do so we're not wasting time in the studio coming up with stuff. Also, my new bass simply CRUSHES when recorded. If it sounds this good to me through my little mixer into my computer's sound card, I can only imagine how good it will sound (and hopefully Sean likes it too, 'cause he's really leaning towards a Sterling bass on the recording) recorded by a Real Live Engineer!
What the hell else is going on? Well, Julie is back at work now. After two months of recovery at her house after breaking her ankle in 3 places, she's back on a consistent basis. And it is good to have her back. She's the Bad Cop to my Good Cop (or Wussy Cop, if you will!). Plus she has some brains to back it up. Me? I'm just making things up as I go...
Riley has his 3rd birthday party tomorrow. When we asked him what kind of party he wanted, instead of asking for a Cars or Transformers or Finding Nemo or Bob the Builder party, he asked for a Monkey party. Now, what the hell is that? I have no idea. Marci, on the other hand, went nuts. Or, more appropriately, bananas. :)
Anyway, she made about 20 cupcakes that look like monkeys, made a cake with Curious George bursting out of it, found a giant-ass inflatable monkey (which is now shoved in her passenger side seat in the car; looks funny!), and basically decked things out with all things simian. The party will be at our local swim club (of which I have not worked out at for several weeks. For shame) and all the cool kids will be there. Hopefully it doesn't rain. :crosses fingers:
Oh. Found out today that my dad was going in for a colonoscopy today. Huh, wha? This is news to me. My aunt told me today at work that he'd had some "issues pooping" and thought it'd be prudent to get 'scoped. Evidently I was the last to know. It's kind of important as Dad went through chemo for cancer about 3 years ago. He had non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma and went through about 4-5 weeks of chemo. Lost the hair and everything, but came back and was healthier than he'd ever been, I think.
Anyway, I guess my brother and his wife were at my parents' house last week and (TMI ALERT ABOUT POOP! WATCH OUT) Dad was on the can, constipated. Apparently he'd been plugged up for some time and because of that, was also vomiting as he was trying to poop. Yikes. (My brother has two dogs and he says that one of them will also puke when constipated. Ugh.)
Needless to say, my bro tried to get Dad to the ER, but, of course, he refused (stubborn old man). Anyway, Knight called one of his many Dr. friends, who recommended some Maalox. So Knight & Shannon ran to get some and as they were at the store, Dad was able to relieve himself. Anyway, fast forward to today and he had his colon checked. Initial thought is that there is some sort of blockage or tumor there, but they won't know if it's cancer or not for a few days.
Let's hope it's not fucking cancer again.
Funny thing was, when Dad had the NHL a few years ago, he was so laid back about it that that's how I handled it. Not once did I worry for his well-being or health. I figured he'd be fine, and, thankfully, he was. This time around, even though we're not sure of anything yet, it's a bit freaky for me. Maybe part of it is because I've been reading a journal by a local reporter about a local little girl dying/suffering from a form of cancer (intense blog here). It's pretty emotional and intimate and is a very touching story. She's in very bad shape and they're praying for a miracle, but who knows what will happen.
So for Dad to be potentially sick again is a bit unsettling for me. They've finally retired (Mom and Dad, that is) and are really, really enjoying their free time. They're traveling or at one of the many local casinos, supporting the local Native American tribes. I know Dad is still taking the, "What, me worry?" angle of attack, but still, it worries me.
Well, this was a backwards blog. I write about some trivial stuff, then, KERPOW! Cancer? Bad meat? Who knows?
Today we got up with nothing on the radar, so we went... car shopping! Actually, car looking, if you will. As I said here, the cars we have are getting a little tight. So we checked out the Nissan Murano and the Acura RDX. Both are mid-sized SUV style cars and both were pretty dang cool. Afterwards, we hit up Best Buy to spend some of the gift card $$$ we received. Following that, it was to meet some friends at the local skating rink for some good ol' Family Fun.
A few weeks ago, I was on Marci's computer and noticed that there was an email from a friend of ours from church. The email said something about a 35th birthday. Well, I didn't and wasn't snooping and Marci told me it was for someone else in our church group. Plus, that person it was from isn't someone we normally hang with, so I didn't pay it any mind.
A little after that, I heard from a family member that they would be attending my party. ???
So, as my birthday came and went, no party happened. I figured nothing was up and just went about my business.
Anyway, at Skate King, we met up with our friends and were waiting to get in. I turned around and happened to see Rich, a guy that works for me. Now, Rich is someone who definitely has no business being at a roller rink, so that basically gave away the surprise. I figured something was up. Plus, I saw a few cars outside that looked like cars I knew.
So, the big surprise was up. But, as I entered the main room and heard, "SURPRISE!", well, I was quite surprised. Marci and Julie had cooked this up for about a month and there were about 25 people there for me. Let's see if I can get them all.
Marci, Haley, Riley, Knight, Shannon, Dung, Megan, Michael, Julie, Rick, Ed B. Aaron C., Nuria, Eliana, Sydney, Ed H., Nancy, Aaron H., Rich, Marcia, Dan, Emily, Allison, Rachel, Rob, Tomoko, and Chuck. I think that was everyone. I guess there was one no-show and some people that would've come, but were out of town. It was a huge surprise to see all these people for me. Much fun.
Onto the skating. I haven't skated on rollerskates for, I don't know, 20 years? I ice skated 1.5 years ago, but the two are different beasts. Haley and Rye had never been skating before today, and after today, I think Skate King will be a huge fixture in our lives for the next several years.
Haley was hilarious. She's usually quite athletic and good at these kinds of things. But once she got those skates on, she might as well have been walking on a floor covered with marbles and ice. She was all over the place.
I started off skating with her, hand in hand. It was fun and I think her left arm is now 1" longer than her right. Everytime she fell, I was yanking her arm to keep her upright. She must've fallen 10-20 times on every lap around the rink. What was amazing, though, was that she kept going. She never got frustrated, and she totally enjoyed it. As me and other parents and adults cruised around and tired, I kept asking if she wanted a break and she'd tell me know, that she wanted to keep plugging away. There was a time when none of my party was on the rink. We were all in the seating area with Haley nowhere to be found. I looked on the rink and there she was, a little blue dot on the far side, shuffling along on her own, arms and legs flailing when she'd hit the deck. It was so damn cute and I was just so proud and amazed by her perserverance. I couldn't tear her from that rink! Over time, though, she did tire and I finally got her to take a rest.
I got to catch up with my man Chuck for a bit. He's a big dude, 6'5" or so. When I got to the party, many people already had skates on. As I said hi to him, I thought he had 'em on too. Then I remembered that he's one big dude and he actually didn't need the 3" skate lift. I guess it'd been awhile since I'd seen him.
My friend Aaron C., whom I've known since middle school, was there and I hadn't seen him for about 6-8 months? He's someone that's always working super hard at anything he does. His ambition and energy are limitless and if I could have just a little of that rub off on me, I'd be a better dude.
It was great to see friends and family, even if it wasn't a party for me. It's funny how it's always so much fun to do something like that; I wish we'd do that more often just for the hell of it. But, we're busy, you're busy, everyone's busy. It's amazing that people would take time out of their schedules for something like this.
35 has come and gone and, all in all, I had a good time. I probably had the geekiest birthday ever, considering the gifts I received. Here's a list.
Nintendo Wii component cables (for a better picture. How geeky is that?).
Super Paper Mario for Wii.
Madden 07 for Wii.
MLB 07 The Show for PS2.
$25 Best Buy Gift Card.
$500 Best Buy Gift Card (to be split between me, Marci and Haley).
I don't think I've ever just gotten video games and gift cards. I'll be hooking up with my bros. soon and maybe they'll break the streak.
I also got to talk to some old friends. That was a treat. One friend I've known for, wow, 21 years now, if you count to our freshman year in high school. She's in the big city of NYC chasing her dream and it was so so so great to hear from her. If I'm lucky, she'll be following my hijinks on this blog. :)
The family and I went out and had sushi tonight. Tasty. Marci and the kids baked a brownie cake for me and the kids especially had a grand ol' time presenting it to me after dinner. For all the bitching I've done about Riley lately, I am so lucky to have him and Haley as my young'uns. At least that's what I say now; it's only 10:30 and he hasn't done his nightly curtain call yet.
Cool thing that happened tonight that wasn't expected? We took the Jetta to Brown Bear for a car wash. As a joke, I asked for the birthday discount and showed the dude my license. He wished me a happy birthday and gave me the big daddy wash for free! How cool is that? So, if you need a car washed, go to Brown Bear in Factoria and if Alex is the kid helping you, tell him you read about him here.
Infinity FX45. Since cars are cool, why not? Plus, the GTi is getting a bit too cozy for the family. BTW, make mine Diamond Graphite plz. KTHXBYE.
Off topic: holy shit. Myspace is going crazy. I've had about 10 emails in the past hour of new friends and seXXXy messages! Go me!
Back on topic. Not really. That's it for now. Surely I can think of more and surely I will need more as I'm sure you all will be sending me those gifts and more.
