Monday, May 10, 2010

The Second of May.



It may be a week late, but having finally had my camera returned to me I can now post some pictures and talk about my birthday.  My birthday this year, was a great occasion.  While I did not receive an awesome present like I did last year, and honestly I wasn't expecting one either, having everyone out and about because of me was more then enough.  I guess it is at these times that I realize that for some reason people actually do enjoy my company.  I'd think that after a while they would get sick of random awkwardness that comes along with being my friend.  Oh well, enough with the boring diatribe and onto the gory details, or at least what I can remember of them (isn't that normally the case).

This year the party started at 5:00 on Saturday.  We headed off to a Korean BBQ restaurant that could hold a party of 20 people.  We went at 5 because I wanted my friends who were bar staff to be able to come and join us.  No we were not asked for our AARP discount cards.  The dinner went off without much of a hitch.  We sat, talked, drank, and ate for two hours.  We enjoyed Korean BBQ in all it's glory.  It's weird but you'd think that after almost two years of Korean BBQ that I wouldn't want to eat it anymore.  However, when you find something good you find something good.  While at the restaurant Paul, Panda, PJ, and Hong (RnB bar staff) bought me small cake and gave me a small present.  It's rare that people embarrass me by giving me a present, but this was entirely unexpected from them.  I received a gift box with about ten condoms and a couple of latex gloves. 

I think that this present deserves some explanation.  Last year on Jenny's birthday I told Paul that as a gag a lot of times we give something completely unexpected to someone for their birthday.  He didn't quite understand what I meant and I told him that we would give them something like a box of condoms.  At this point he proceeded to hand me a box of condoms and told me to give them to Jenny (January 2009 is where this story takes place).  I told him at the time that it's entirely unacceptable for me to give a girl a box of condoms because A) I was friends with here but not that good of friends with her, B) she's a girl and that's just presumptuous, and C) when a guy gives a girl he sorta knows a box of condoms it means that he wants to use them with her.  That is the reason why I got this present from them, and I was honestly embarrassed and surprised that they remembered the entire exchange between us.  However, in one light I guess it goes to show the way that we have bonded over the past 20 months.  

After the dinner we headed out to a local Norae Bang for some horrible Karaoke.  Honestly, half the fun of this is singing songs that you know you can't sing, and just trying to get through them.  When you have a room full of people who can't really sing, nobody really cares how bad you sound.  It's only when someone arrives who can actually sing that we realize just how bad we really are.  We walked into the Norae Bang at 7:30 and we quickly escorted into the VIP room.  No, it's not that special of a room, it's just the room big enough to fit all of us that I had a friend make a reservation for.  As we walked in I found out that my friend Seung Hee, who was conspicuously absent for most the night, had decorated the room with balloons and a banner.  There was also several cans of spray foam, that really shouldn't have been there.  It's like silly string but foam instead of string.  Needless to say this stuff ended up getting sprayed on unsuspecting people several times, including me.  Pictures have been included.  We sang out hearts out for two hours and continued to imbibe alcohol at an unwise pace.

When we stumbled, out of the Norae Bang we headed down to RnB.  It was there that we rejoined the staff at RnB.  Yes, they were working, but they were also part of the party because many of us are good friends with them.  The drinking and partying continued, as did my friends mission to get me stupidly drunk.  Sometimes when we play darts we make a bet that the loosing team has to buy the winning team a round.  It's a normal bar bet.  However, this night the bet was changed (without my consent I must state) to the loosing team has to buy and do a shot with me.  This was just a bad idea, but at the point I was not paying enough attention to really notice or care.  Right around midnight the staff at RnB started their fire show.  Once again the normal show is relatively simple.  You get a cocktail and some flames.  However, my show, was a flaming spectacle.  The dual fireballs of 151, plus a flaming cocktail show are awesome.  Hong even started throwing a white Malibu Rum bottle around that was filled with sparklers.  This was the first time I ever saw her taking part in the show with something that would break if dropped.  At the completion of the show it is required that whoever the show was for must chug a rather large cocktail.  Well, once again, not thinking better of it I downed the cocktail and continued to have fun.



When the show had finished I received a call from Seung Hee telling me that she was going to come say hi for a minute or two.  I met her outside of RnB because I needed some air, and if I was outside nobody would be buying me drinks.  After talking for a few minutes she had to go rejoin some old friends who had come back into town.  Less then five minutes after walking back into RnB I received another call from her telling me to come outside because one of her friends wanted to see me.  Yu Sill who I had met several times wanted to wish me a happy birthday.  It was then that my Korean friends decided to drag me off to a restaurant/hof (restaurant/bar).  I walked into the place and was quickly inundated with questions from the couple of people who I hadn't met.  I was also quickly handed beer and soju to drink because it was my birthday.  Well, it's rude to turn down a drink when it is offered to you buy a Korean so I sat and talked with them for a little while.  Upon leaving I checked in to 501 where a few friends were located who wanted to wish me a happy birthday.  Upon arrival there I finally realized that I probably shouldn't be drinking any more and should head home relatively soon.  I sat down and talked with my friends, and a majority of this conversation is lost in an alcohol induced haze.  After what I think was about 10 minutes I headed out the door to find my apartment.  I woke up the next morning in my bed, and I had to wait for until 7:00 that night for the world to seem like a place I wanted to inhabit. 


On Sunday night I went over to Seung Hee's home and her mom had made me the traditional Korean soup that you eat on your birthday.  The soup consists of seaweed and beef.  It's actually an awesome soup.  I spent about an hour eating and talking with Seung Hee and then headed home.  I wasn't in the mood for anything more then that, and the thought of more alcohol surprisingly didn't sit well with my stomach, my mood, or my general disposition at the time.



It was a wonderful birthday, and while I didn't see the sun rise like I had originally planned to, I cannot complain.  I was surrounded by good friends and good people.  In all honesty I cannot ask for much more on my birthday.  Being surrounded by people who care for you is the greatest present you can ever be given.  Knowing that people are there because they are your friends and want to celebrate something with you is a special feeling.  They weren't there for money, food, or alcohol even though we did have two of the three in massive quantities.

1 comment:

Nathan said...

It's Roger! .. and is that Jun Ho sitting across from him?