Birthday Reflections: Twenty-One is Plenty-Fun

The friend-of-the-feminine-persuasion gave me googly eyes for my birthday, among other things.

I turned tventy-one (gasp!) last week, but I haven't had much time to document the events. I probably won't put everything here, to preserve the mystery and to prevent boredom, so here goes:

I spent the day before my birthday hanging out with my brother, who drove down from the Irvine area to celebrate. We spent the time:

• Introducing him to the friend-that's-a-girl, whom he had yet to meet.
• Applying seven dollars worth of those non-permanent tattoos you get for kids for their birthday party. We went to Walmart and picked up a box of "girl rocker" tattoos. About three square-feet worth of butterflies, hearts, and little stylized monikers like "Punk Rocker Chick." Managed to cover a large swath of my back and both arms from shoulder to wrist.
• Having dinner and fruitful conversation about life and the church.

Then I got kidnapped.

A few tips on getting kidnapped:

• If your significant other calls you at any time near your birthday and asks to be walked home, your Spidey-senses should be tingling. On the other hand, you're a jerk if you say no. Proceed with caution.
• Expect to be tackled. The trick is to try to land as flat as possible--if you extend your arms to brace yourself, you have high odds of breaking your wrists.
• When they tie your wrists, tighten your muscles and turn your wrists so that your thumbs are against each other. Afterwards, you can relax your muscles and rotate your hands palm-to-palm to prevent rope chafing and create slack to escape (not that you should try to escape, but when they finally deliver you to the target location and everyone yells "Surprise!" you can slip your bonds effortlessly, thus impressing the ladies.).
• Struggle enough so that your friends have fun...and don't suspect that you are simply biding your time until your daring escape.

Had my first beer ever while watching Aladdin. Personally, I'm still partial to milk tea, but maybe it's just a matter of time?

Spent the rest of the evening scrubbing vainly at my arms, because I realized I was going to be serving on worship team in front of the entire church the next morning. Tip: if you're going to apply loads of tattoos, don't put them anywhere where you have significant amounts of hair. I think my arms are far less hirsute than they were two weeks ago.

Sunday evening I was taken to a classy bar to continue exploring the wonders of alcohol. If you ever go drinking with people, choose people who

1. you trust to care for your well-being, and
2. are good conversationalists. I'm pretty sure the majority of the fun comes from having deep and revealing talks with people who usually have more inhibitions.

Also, don't do anything stupid with your phone while inebriated, even if only mildly.

Ended the evening when the lady friend sent me a package--a shoebox containing

• three kinds of tape
• wooden skewers
• paper clips
• a ball of string
• post-its
• two kinds of markers
• 75 self-adhesive googly eyes
• Band-aids (for me)
• a note

All in all, probably one of the best birthdays to date.

(Other swag included:

•  A real man-wallet from my parents. Leather. Manly-looking. Also full of money and thoughtful notes from Mom, Dad, and the little sister.
• Shadow of the Almighty, by Elisabeth Elliot. A biography of Jim Elliot. About one-third through so far--it's very good.
• Android Karenina from SamJ (of this blog!). My bookshelf is now 3% classier.
• Boba from Tea Station.)

[insert pithy statement about life here]