My Favorite Birthday

My birthday is December 30th. 5 days after Christmas, the day before New Year's Eve. Many people forget it. Folks always remember it's after Christmas and before New Year's, but that's about it. Over the years, I've learned to just be happy that someone remembered to reach out to me in that 5 day period, but I'm always tickled pink when someone makes it a point to remember me on that day.

Because I'm so close to the holidays, birthday parties have been few and far between. The other thing is I've always had a mixed bag of friends and always worried how a large party where they were all there would work. I always felt like I'd be so stressed trying to make sure everyone else had a good time that I wouldn't have a good time.

I have a lot of birthday memories. As far as parties go, the only one I remember is the one I had when I was 9. Mom rented out a skating rink, invited family and friends and I had a blast, even though my skating skills were questionable at best. ;)

The year I turned 16, I got my license on my birthday, that was cool. The next year, I missed curfew on my birthday and got in some serious trouble. J and I got back together on my 19th birthday; that was memorable...

But my favorite birthday??

Probably my 18th birthday. One of my closest friends from high school threw me a party at her lake house. Old friends from high school and new friends from college showed up. It was maybe the most dramatic party ever. Everyone there was underage, but we managed to score some alcohol (the skills you learn in college are amazing) and I spent the whole night finding the "swirly zone" as I labeled it. By the time I did that, I heard some arguing going on in the upstairs bedroom. All my other friends were downstairs playing pool, so I went up to investigate. Two of my friends who were dating at the time were in a fight and as I walked in, the girl bum rushed the guy into a wall and began hitting him. I immediately squeezed myself in between them (I wasn't sober, give me a break) and bodied her onto the bed. I literally had to lay on her to make sure she didn't get back up. Meanwhile, homeboy was livid and he came for her too. I got her out of the room and took her downstairs.

When I got downstairs and the other guys found out that he almost hit her, they went crazy.

By then my buzz had been blown so I did 3 triple shots of vodka and went to bed. I paid dearly for that.

So how's this my favorite birthday? Well I was surrounded by some really good friends. I mean some of my friends that were there drove a good ways to be at my party. Before the fighting, we'd all been having a great time and really enjoying each other's companies. The entire spectrum of the mixed bag that is my friends wasn't represented that night but there was a good mix and they all had a great time together. I really think it's a big idea for someone to want to spend part of their day and their time with you helping you celebrate an event they weren't even present for! I'd take a friend just wanting to chill with me on my birthday over presents any day.