exiting the 20's

I woke up to the second disc of the White Album, as "Birthday" by the Beatles is the only birthday that rocks and is tolerable. Thirty years of life in this particular body. Strange.

My birthdays have always been small affairs. I think a full-scale bash with lots of people and well-wishers would be terribly embarrassing. Being born in August I always missed out on school-friend deals because everyone was out for summer holiday. And I was on the road for a majority of the others, bike races, camping in Pennsylvania, at resident camp or day camp. I think the one time I had a party was when I turned 10, but it was a block party that happened to be at the same time, so there were a bunch of adults I didn't know. I like having small introspective birthdays, with time to reflect and such.

The night before, Tracy and Rich came down and had a few presents for me, including a Napoleon Dynamite shirt that read "Give me your tots." I gave Tracy a couple things from China and then we went to the Comet to catch Meadoe. As they weren't going on until 12:30 and I wasn't going to suffer through Machine Go Boom a second time in two days, we removed ourselves to Northside Tavern, hung out on the patio. Forced to share a table with two couples who weren't fond of each other, we made small chitchat with the women, who reminded us unnecessarily that they were in their 40's. One had her boyfriend buy me a shot of Jagermeister when midnight struck. I thanked them, bade them adieu and we went back to the Comet.

Meadoe rocked good and proper and after their set, I circulated. Tracy and Rich had to jet back to Dayton, and I barely remember them leaving, for I was getting a little toasted. Steve, Kendall, Meghan, myself and another guy I can't remember the name of went to Camp Washington chili for after-bar sustenance, then for crucial passing out time.

So as I walked down to Jen Lee's in the morning sunshine I had a bit of a headache. She made some espresso and coffee and that helped. We went downtown to pick up Erin and her boyfriend Aaron, then zoomed over to Kings Mills and sequestered ourselves creekside by the bike trail. The day was intensely beautiful, with a changing pallet of sky that would alternately be cloudy and open fiery shafts of light down on us. The creek felt perfect, not to warm, not too cold. We spent the day laughing and I regaled them with my tales of Chinese adventure, tried to come up with a sexual deviant term for "Root Beer Encore." I had brought my hose organ and serenaded a canoeing couple with a chorus of "Row row row your boat."

After hours of playing in and out of the creek, we explored the Peters Cartridge Co, an old gunpowder factory. The place was massive, replete with catwalks, industrial machinery, trees and bushes growing up through the heart of it, towers and smokestacks bearded with spiral ivy, beaming a capital "P" and emblazoned with turquoise tilework, an elegant touch for a machinery garden. It was very "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" in appearance. I was very nervous of getting caught as "No trespassing, violators will be prosecuted" was stenciled every few feet. But, we got out with no trouble and drove back into Clifton, securing an Adriatico's pizza and taking in the sky show, a sunset so incredible it made you want to applaud afterwards.

Jen Lee was starting to fall asleep on the floor so I thanked her for a lovely day and said goodbye to Erin and Aaron (perhaps being around so many Aaron/Erin people was exhausting) got my free ice cream cone at Graeter's and walked back up the hill home. I got to chat with Heather for bit on the phone, which was delightful. I miss not being able to ride my bike across town and see her. She sent me a package which contained various things, but most importantly the children's book "The Five Chinese Brothers." We had talked about it while in China and she had tracked it down. I shall have to send her "Strega Nona" for her birthday.

Steve, Janet and I went down to Cooper's (rapidly becoming the new Shirley's) and sang and drank. The bartender gave me a shot of Jagermeister on the house and other rounds were bought for me throughout the night. The cheese and ice cream from before had destroyed my voice and I barely made it through "Stand and Deliver" and "Dream Police." Closing time happened and Janet took us back up to the place where I crashed like the stock market.