Tomorrow is my birthday, and I won’t be doing anything too special. I have planned a quasi-reunion for later in the year, as most of my high school classmates are turning 55 this year, so I thought it would be fun to have a big party, but that’s in September and, honestly, I don’t know how many people are coming. Whatever. The point is, I’m not doing anything particularly interesting on the day, nor did I do anything this past weekend or next weekend. I’m not a big celebrater of birthdays — it’s not that I hate them and try to ignore them, I just don’t think it’s that noteworthy. Still, I have had some fun birthdays, so my Question is: What’s the favorite one you’ve celebrated?
I have three that stand out for me. On 19 May 1989 I turned 18. Sure, your 18th birthday is a special one, but mine happened to coincide with the night of my senior prom, which was neat. Unlike so many nerds of fact and fiction, I had a girlfriend, whom I had been dating since about October of the previous year, and we went together with some other friends. We rented a limo and had a nice time, despite the fact that the “official song” of the prom was a goddamned Richard Marx song (probably “Right Here Waiting,” which came out about the same time). It was a fun night. Here we are, in all our late 1980s glory!
The next good one, perhaps predictably, was my 21st, but not for the reasons you might think. Yes, I went out drinking, but I was studying in Australia at the time, so going out to bars was not a new thing. It was the Australia part that made it excellent, of course. My friends and I didn’t do anything too spectacular — we went to Pizza Hut! — but we did end up at a bar right across from the University of Melbourne, Naughtons on Royal Parade, which is, excellently enough, still there. I received a free pitcher of beer, which I was obligated to chug. If I tried that today, I think I would die.
Finally, the third “favorite” birthday was my 40th, in 2011. I happened to be in Pennsylvania for 7 weeks while my daughter was at a facility in Bethlehem, as we were trying to get her to eat more without resulting to putting a g-tube in her stomach (it didn’t work, and in January 2012, she got herself a tube!). It was an inpatient facility, so I stayed with my parents for that time, leaving my poor wife and young daughter (she was 5 at the time) alone in Arizona, which my wife still hasn’t forgiven me for. As it was an inpatient facility and they discouraged frequent visits, I had a lot of time to do nuthin’, so I hung out with my friends from high school a lot. On 20 May (the 19th was a Thursday), we went out to a restaurent in Doylestown and had a nice time. I took Slim Jims to give out to everyone because the Macho Man, Randy Savage, had died that morning. The guy who sat me saw them and said, “Are those for the Macho Man?” I didn’t take too many pictures, but here’s one of me with a friend’s girlfriend:
So those are my favorite birthdays. I suppose if I lived near family and friends I’d have more memorable ones, but whatever. I like hanging out with my wife and maybe going out to dinner every few years. Still, it’s fun to let loose every once in a while. Maybe the thing I’m doing in September will be memorable, even the birthday part of it is just an excuse.
What’s your favorite birthday? Was it a “milestone” one, or just a random one that happened to be memorable? Let us know!
