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No one ever calls them birthday parties anymore.  It’s always “Birthday Bash” or “Birthday Blowout” or “Birthday Extravaganza!”  Come on, it’s just a birthday party.  That’s what we had last Saturday, even though my actual birthday was eight days prior.  I worked nearly half of all the hours between midnight and midnight on my real birthday, so we postponed the festivities.

Saturday was chosen because, by then, my coworkers would be back in town from their vacations, and also because Extemporaneous Theatre Co. had a show at eight o’clock.  I love ETC shows, and as such attend every new show at least once.

First, however, we had dinner.  The venue, chosen for my long-felt desire to visit the place, was the Fish Market, in South Birmingham.  I’ve heard numerous stories about how great the Fish Market is, but I’d never gotten around to eating there, until last Saturday.  I had the Coconut Shrimp, and it was very good (although more food than I could handle).  I don’t remember what everyone else had, because there were many in attendance.  There was Jennifer and myself, of course, both of my parents, Jennifer’s mom, my sister Lindsey and her husband, and Jamie and John.  We had a packed table, and, yes, it made me feel special.

I received great gifts from everyone!  From my parents I received a nice shirt (although it’s a bit small, and I need to exchange it—I’m really fat); if I can, I’ll exchange it for the same shirt, because I really did like it.  They also pre-ordered the new Halo for me from Amazon, which I am, naturally, very excited about.  Lindsey and Daniel gave me a photograph of Adam West and whoever played Batgirl that was signed by Adam West, along with an odd little pure gold trading card featuring the Beatles’ album Abbey Road, in a certified mint package.  From Jamie and John I got a book, which, as I was told by Jennifer, was written by someone whose work I have admired in the past via the internet.  I started on the book this morning, too, and it’s very compelling.  I think it will be a fast read.

There were two gifts I received before the birthday party, those being from Jennifer and and her mother, Irene.  Jennifer’s gift was awesome, and has already seen a lot of use.  It was a new electric shaver.  I got the old shaver I’ve been using around my freshman year in high school, and I didn’t realize how tired the thing had become until I started using this new one.  The coolest thing about it is that it is watertight, so you can literally just rinse it off when you’re done with it!  Irene gave me several Star Trek books.  They’re pretty cool.  Four of them, which came in a boxed set, are probably the most interesting, and I’ll probably hit those first.

I’ve saved what was the most interesting gift, from a storytelling perspective, for last.  Along with the shirt, my parents included a card.  Inside the card, apparently, Mom had intended on including a dollar bill, one that she had found in her change.  She was giving it to me because she knows what a fan I am of Batman, and this dollar had been drawn upon such as to make it appear that George Washington was dressed as Batman.  Now, the very interesting thing about all this is that I was the person who drew the image on the dollar!  I swear to you, this dollar, along with several others, I drew upon such as to make it appear that our first president was clad in several different amusing outfits, this being one of them.  Other’s included a pirate, a clown, and business executive.  It really is remarkable that that dollar ended up in my mother’s possession.  She decided that she wanted to keep the dollar after I told her all that.

After dinner, of course, we were off to the show.  ETC is an improvisational theatre group, and they are very, very funny.  My parents and sister didn’t trust my promise that it would be a funny show, but they admitted that I was right afterward.  I can’t really convey it all in such a way as to pass along the humor, so you’ll just have to trust me when I say that it was a riot.

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