shenanigans

well, that was unexpected. i find this entertaining given the poopiness of my last post, but as i look back, my foul mood probably contributed to the fact that i was duped with the shenanigans going on right under my nose.

impressive.

so friday al and i were supposed to have dinner with hj for my birthday. that being said i was exhausted from the week, in a foul mood, and feeling under the weather. i ended up leaving work on fri just wanting to go home and take a nap - and not really wanting to go to dinner at all. al says he'll pick me up from the train station, but i was insistent that i needed to take a nap. so he meets me at the train station anyhow, and walks me home, where i find darlin cleaning my apt. (i hired him to be my 'cleaning lady' since he needed some cash and i needed some help around the apt).

my bed was all folded up and i was thinking - man, he's so thorough, cleaning under the bed and everything. but then i was annoyed that i couldn't sleep on my bed. so i promptly passed out on the couch, while al and darlin made the bed back up so i could pass out there.

after an hour or so, al comes in to wake me up and try to get me to go to dinner ... at which point i was like "you go have dinner with hj...i want to sleeeeeeep". he finally convinced me that i'd feel better after i'd had food, and off we went...somewhat late. on the way there he tells me that there's a mystery guest - which was pretty darn hilarious bc the mystery guest turned out to be pyshin. so the 4 of us had dinner, which, to his credit, did make me feel better. the waiter even brought out birthday desserts for us without having had to be asked, which was really impressive.

so al says, for the next part of the evening, he thought we'd go back and have a quiet evening at home with p and hj, and we each headed to our respective cars. we're driving home and he misses the turn for 122, where we usually park - and i was like "uh dude, you missed the turn, what's going on?" and he absentmindedly takes the next right turn and loops around, looking for parking. it was pretty hard to find parking actually, but we finally squeezed into a spot and headed home. meanwhile i was thinking, man, i just want to go to sleep.

so we get there and he opens the door - which ends up being kind of stuck. he sort of shoves it open and lo and behold, there are a whole bunch of people and a cake and stacks of champagne flutes and ... shenanigans. it was pretty impressive, i must say. and then he goes "c'mon guys - at least move the shoes away from the door - i couldn't get it open!" haha.

so apparently darlin had cleaned my place that day and was going to set up for the party when i ruined the plans by deciding i needed to come home and take a nap. he had my bed all folded up because if everyone who said they'd come had come, he and al had transformed my bedroom so that people could hang out in there.

the apt was decorated with these blue streamers and hanging things everywhere - as lisa put it "it's like a public school prom where you could only afford one color!" haha. it was a great mix of my church and tkd friends, and generally just great to see everyone all at once.

much to my embarassment al had prepared martinelli's and wine with the flutes for a toasting affirmation time - man, i haven't done affirmations since college and intervarsity. i forgot how embarassing it was to sit there and have people say nice things about you. but he thinks i have issues accepting compliments (and perhaps he's right) so i appreciated the gesture of the activity. it's kind of funny, most people's comments had a common theme - about how i was so mean or intimidating or scary but then they got to know me and i'm not that mean ... or that i created community or something like that. i realized that perhaps my calling is to create communities for people, because that's what people seem to remember me for. interesting.

al's goal was to make me cry, but he underestimated my ability to suck it up in a crowd. haha. but it was nice, nonetheless...i almost teared up when lisa started crying...haha and i think darlin was close. it was all very warm and fuzzy.

and then apparently there was a gift. i had to sit on the chair with my eyes closed and i sat there for a long time while they brought something out ... but then apparently they were waiting for a reaction and alan realized that no one told me to open my eyes yet. much to my surprise, they had gotten me a keyboard - a pretty nice one too - with a stand and bench and earphones and everything. quite overwhelming, but ... what a birthday.

then on sunday we went up to westchester and he cooked dinner for my cousins and we all got together to celebrate ... which was great too. i got to hang out with all the kids, including jordan (3) who can't say my name and calls me "swarmy eemoh", alex (5) who drew me a card where apparently i'm a clown (there's a pointy thing on my head) ... sam (11) who asked me if i could move back in ... syd (7), whose card alan interprets as a desire to be closer to me (i interpreted it as her thinking her brother's head is big) ... and my man issac (4) who drew me 2 cards. one of them had some squiggles and shapes and i asked him what they were.

"that's my garage, and that's your garage"

"but i live in the city...i don't have a garage"

"then where do you park your car??"

haha. i miss those kids a lot...

poor alan was so exhausted from the weekend. apparently he had worked from home most of last week in preparation. getting the keyboard from his place to my place without me noticing...apparently there had been cases of beer and soda on my balcony and he had just counted on the cold that i wouldn't go out there for a few days...

impressive.