Still Thirty After All These Years ...

[saavedra77]

On Wednesday, I turned thirty for the tenth year in a row. Woo-hoo! (It's a nice age, really; I decided awhile ago that I'd keep it.)

The first birthday message of the day came via e-card from Deanna, whom I haven't seen since before the first time I turned thirty. The headline: "Candle Hog!"

When I got to the office, a coworker came over to wish me a happy birthday and gave me a bag of Turkish Delight, after a few pieces of which I completely understood how the White Witch in The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe enslaved whatsisname by becoming the kid's source for this sugary heroin. Picking up on that theme, jmargethe then emailed me some virtual crack! Yay!

During the staff meeting, that afternoon, my fellow Study Managers gave me a bunch of black-and-purple balloons and some little black-chocolate cupcakes.

Kristen called after work, which gave me the opportunity to update her on the whole Divine Retribution and Facial Hair thing (and her part in it).

Later on, I met sarrabellum and sleepwhenimdead for dinner. In fact, it turned out that they'd covertly organized a whole damn ell-jay par-tay on my behalf, with marginalia, ronelyn, and spoomeister all in attendance.

At sarrabellum's suggestion, we went to La Casa del Mojito for dinner, a little pan-Latino place on Lake City Way which has now joined the pantheon of my favorite Seattle dining spots. I got the Pollo de la Parrilla, a flaky grilled half-chicken that came in a bed of black beans and rice with garlic-dribbled platanos fritos--which was fabulous. Then again, everything that everyone got looked and smelled fabulous. (Next time, I think that I want to try the Parrilla de Luigi--the citrus-marinated steak.)

Also, there was much drinking: I had the Sunblaster, which consists of lime, sugar, coconut rum, and I think some kind of banana liqueur. marginalia had that, too, and I think that she will also testify to its unsurpassed excellence. sarrabellum had a mojito which if I remember arightly she described as "a brick wrapped in lime." sleepwhenimdead had the sangria, which was nice but a bit sour for my tastes.

As you could imagine, we got a mite silly, what with all the calories and alcohol: There was one profoundly inappropriate colloquy about the unlooked-for kinships between breasts and facial hair. And a serious conversation about sleepwhenimdead's new marketing job went amusingly astray as I tried to reassure him that it wouldn't make him square, it's not like anyone would mistake him for that guy from Death of a Salesman, whatsisname, Willy Lowhat? sarrabellum wondered if it wasn't Willy Lomax, but then admitted that she was really thinking of Dr. Seuss' the Lorax. (Yeah, yeah, I know it's Willy Loman--I was a goddamned Comp Lit major, okay?! But drunkenness doesn't exactly enhance my already feeble memory.) Anyway, this led spoomeister to launch into a spontaneous burst of Seussian verse about poor Willy the Lorax. (Sadly, neither Spoo nor I can remember how it went anymore: something something something/ "I cannot sell to this man!" Feel free to suggest your own version ...)

Finally sated, we staggered away, with me so thoroughly plastered that I actually broke out (somewhat haltingly, because I couldn't remember more than a verse) into song: "No me preguntas tanto ..."

Feelin' the LOVE ...

Comments

[saavedra77.livejournal.com]

Thanks again for putting your mad organizing/delegating skills to the task of making Wednesday evening happen. Glad that everything went according to your Evil Plan ...