MadMup.com

The older you get, the less important it is to confine birthday-related activities to the specific day of your birthday. This also works with holidays like Christmas and Thanksgiving, I’ve found. This year my birthday got spread out over several days, and I thought I’d give you a report. Even if it doesn’t interest you, it’ll be a good reminder for me when I look back at it.

It actually started in April this year, with the Sega shirt sent to me by Angie. Unexpected and way cool!

On the actual day of my birthday, I started out with what has come to be my birthday breakfast: a lemon-filled glazed Krispy Kreme donut. I don’t eat them very often, so a birthday seems a perfect time to indulge.

Lunch was spent with my two friends named Beth. (Say “both Beths” out loud – it’s fun to do!) Beth 1 couldn’t make it to the birthday dinner later on, so she treated me to lunch. It was very nice, though I had hoped the best waitress in the world would be at the restaurant – it must have been her day off. Oh, well. (I’m not so sure I’ve mentioned TBWitW before, but I mean to. She’s worth a whole entry on her own.)

Throughout the day I received emails, phone calls, blog comments, and text messages from friends. No one at my job said anything to me, as I’m too new for people to know about my birthday here, I guess. It’s possible they just don’t like me, but I’ll assume the former since I’m still in a good mood from my birthday.

Birthday dinner was at Puccini’s Smiling Teeth, a local Italian eatery. In attendance (alphabetically by first name): Beth 2, Jenn, Kat, Matt, Skip, Steve, & Tammy. These are all people that I’ve met either through improv, or through people I’ve known through improv. The theme: Batman, complete with table covering, balloon tied to my chair, napkins, and foam rubber batarang party favors. While they were setting up for it, the waiter came up and asked, “So how old is the birthday boy?” When they answered, “33” he apparently got a funny look in his eye. The list of presents that follows would only further that look in his eye, I think:

• A framed Batman Begins movie poster, the really cool one where he’s standing in silhouette. (I’ll try to get pictures of some of these things later.)
• A cheese shaker that was used on the actual set of Seinfeld. (This actually hasn’t arrived yet, but I received the printout of the screen showing the winning auction.)
• Flowers. Actual flowers!
• A tricked-out Hot Wheels dairy delivery truck
• A knick-knack of two carved kitties sitting on a little couch
• A picture done using wires and tacks on black velvet of a Model T. This one is the most difficult to describe and needs to be seen.
• A Yoda Pez dispenser

Looking at that list you can make one of a couple of assumptions: either people don’t know what to get me so they err on the side of giving something they might think is funny or they know me exactly and got me things they knew I would love. (I’ll give you a hint: it’s the second thing.)

Saturday was spent with my family. My mom, dad, brother, sister-in-law, niece, and nephew all had come down the night before, but got in pretty late, so I didn’t see them until Saturday. We went to Historic Prophetstown (“Historic Prophetstown is a 300-acre site incorporated in Prophetstown State Park. It is dedicated to the preservation of agricultural, environmental, and Native American heritage. A 1920s farmstead, a restored prairie, and a developing Native American village help to interpret the stories. Learn Native American stories and lore… walk or enjoy a horse drawn ride through the prairie… visit the 1920s farmhouse… participate in the special programs and events… all at Historic Prophetstown!”), Wolf Park (this was the coolest thing – all sorts of wolves, and we got to hear them howl!), and the Tippecanoe Battlefield, with a stop at McDonald’s for lunch.

Dinner was hosted at Kat’s, with Matt in attendance. This was meant to introduce my two families to each other, and it went very well. Afterwards, my sister-in-law said, “Your friends are very funny.” I replied, “Well, we are in an improv group together…”

A few games of Scrabble later (I won two of them) and I said goodbye to the family for the night and went to Wal-Mart with Matt and Beth 2. We might have been after some last-minute Mother’s Day things, but you’ll never get me to confess to it. We did, however, follow it up with some Jell-O Oreo pudding. Mmmm.

List of gifts received on Saturday:

• Money. (A gift that never goes out of style.)
• A T-shirt with the caption “It’s all fun and games until someone loses an eye” wherein two characters are playing keepaway with a third character’s eye.
• Superman lounge pants
• A suckao kit – basically a way to prepare super-rich hot chocolate. It’s Ecuadorian and was sent to me by an Australian friend. I feel so international!
• Lego Star Wars PC game. Technically this wasn’t a gift, it’s for review, but it came during my birthday weekend and looks like fun, so I’m counting it.
• A card from my grandma. She’s finally stopped sending money, and I’m glad. Any time she did, I always felt guilty.
• A limited edition print of the last Batman drawing Bob Kane (creator of Batman, don’t ya know) did before he died. Wow with the awesome.

Mother’s Day lunch was at Texas Roadhouse with the family before they headed back to Wisconsin. The end of the day was spent with friends with the weekly viewing of Desperate Housewives (yay, Susan & Mike!).

On Monday, I received a birthday card from the staff at one of my old schools. Tonight I’m going out to eat with a friend from one of my old schools. That’ll just about wrap up a solid several days of birthdaying.

I’m surrounded by good people. Thank you, everyone who had a part in my birthday. You all have a place in my heart.

I close with the lyrics to Older, by They Might Be Giants:

You’re older than you’ve ever been.
And now you’re even older.
And now you’re even older.
And now you’re even older.
You’re older than you’ve ever been.
And now you’re even older.
And now you’re older still.

TIME! Is marching on.
And time.. is still marching on.

This day will soon be at an end
And now it’s even sooner.
And now it’s even sooner.
And now it’s even sooner.
This day will soon be at an end
And now it’s even sooner.
And now it’s even sooner.
And now it’s sooner still.

You’re older than you’ve ever been.
And now you’re even older.
And now you’re even older.
And now you’re even older.
You’re older than you’ve ever been.
And now you’re even older.
And now you’re older still.