You may be wondering how that birthday thing went:
The
actual day, Thursday, was uneventful. There was pizza and some gifts. The main
event was Saturday, and we all knew it.
Saturdays always being hectic, my mother, sisters, and I got to Pyzanos a few minutes late. I did not think it
would be a big deal, but there were already people there! There were tables set
up for us, and a huge bunch of balloons on the chair at the head of the table.
That was from Pyzanos.
Various
people arrived at different times, but we started with I think five people
already there, and another eight coming in soon after. I will get a bit more
into that later.
In
terms of the venue, there was a lot of
good. I was so impressed with the balloons and the tables being ready. I feel
bad that there were not many drinkers. I tried to tip well. There were some
drinkers and some people got food, but realistically, it was a lot of Mormons.
The
KJ is great, and she got everyone to sing Happy Birthdy to me, and she is great
with finding selections. They did have both “I Wanna” in the style of the All
American Rejects, and “Dragostea din tei” in the style of O-zone, and I sang
both. If I had done a third, seriously, I would not be surprised if they have
the Misfits, but I decided two was enough.
Actually,
there is video of “I Wanna”. It is through Facebook, not Youtube, so it is not
super easy to find, and I can live with this. I knew it was a possibility. With
smart phones, you can be tagged in photos and videos before you even get home, and
I was. In retrospect, I should have started with the O-zone one. I did a better
job, and so that would have been a better one to have captured on film.
The
other patrons were very nice. One old islander said it was a tradition to
dedicate a song to people on their birthdays, so he told me he would, and when
he got up there he said the tradition was also that I would hula, but since I
didn’t know the hula I could just dance. I actually threw in some ersatz hula
moves, because I can, and also his song was the Israel Kamakawiwo’ole version
of “Over the Rainbow/Wonderful World”, so it worked.
There
was another guy I danced with a couple of times. The first time I thought he
was a good dancer, but I kept up pretty well. The second time he unleashed
greater moves, and I did not keep up.
There
was also another, skeevy guy, who kept hitting on all the women, wedding rings
or not. We all rebuffed him, but at another point three of us were out there,
and he tried again, and basically three of us let him twirl us. I mean, he was
basically harmless, and we didn’t want to be hurtful, so that seemed like a
reasonable allowance. You know, bar in Aloha.
The
other thing that was kind of cool was there was a girl who was wearing a great
outfit, and I told her, and she thought I looked familiar, but we couldn’t
place it, and suddenly I thought maybe she was someone from college. Well, she
was not that person, but we lived in the same complex our freshmen years, so we
would have seen each other all the time.
So,
let’s look at some of the specific goals and concerns. In terms of converting
others to karaoke, I absolutely did not. The only other person in my group who
sang was Moana, and she has done it before, though she prefers private room
karaoke, like at Voicebox. Also, my family left before my second song, so they
still don’t know how amazing I can be. (That may actually be insurmountable.)
Still, I sang, I danced, and I visited with friends, which is not bad at all.
Also, cards and presents kept appearing. I wasn’t really expecting that.
The
other concern was how the friend interactions would work out, and it really
went pretty well. One advantage to pulling from a single social group is that
everyone knows each other, and in theory they get along.
In
this mix, other than the immediate family, there were people whom I had known
from anywhere between 35 years to two months. No one knew everyone, and one
person knew only me. And yet overall, it went really well. Cathy and Jen loved
each other! Mom and my sisters had never really talked to Toni, but now they
have. Sonya and Sid got to catch up, twenty years after we all lived in
Hamilton together. John and Kristin want to set Russ up with someone they know.
I
was told I did a good job of mingling. I hope that is true. I wish I had gotten
to spend more time with Angela and Toni. It was fun catching up with people,
though, and it is so gratifying that they like each other, and that I can look
around and remember once again how many smart, funny, kind people it has been
my privilege to know. That’s not bad at all.
So,
it felt pretty good over all, but don’t think I let things go to my head. My
family had already left and were in bed, so Moana gave me a ride home, and the
dogs seemed happy to see me, but as I was sorting everything out I hung my
purse on a chair and Geno immediately peed on it. I think he may have resented
me staying out a little bit. Or maybe the attached balloons were freaking him
out. Brought back to earth quite quickly there.
There was one other interesting thing about the
evening. I was telling Richard about the comic book, and how I am putting up
the chapters and now I will need to draw it. Apparently there are some really
good online drawing courses, which I will need to check out, but also, I mentioned
something about how many characters there were, and he said “That would make a
good desktop game.” Is that where it will lead me next? Perhaps I should try
and finish the drawing in five years instead of nine, so then I can work on
game programming. As long as there is always something to learn and some way to
be creative.
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