So I have been off cam for a few days to do the "gosh-I-Hate-that-I-Am-Older-Let's-Party Routine. It started out as myself and Kip trying to find someone's house we could trash that weekend (It's Kip's Birthday as well on the 6th). Our plan was going great, and then our so-called "pals" decided to up and leave at the last minute to go to Florida (I am talking about them leaving on an hour's notice). But actually, that was ok, cuz I think I had a fabulous time despite being abandoned. I went out to meet some other friends I have recently made acquaintance with (Mike, Leigh, Jeff, Carla, Wilson and Matt) to see if they wanted to go out and get funky with me (Kip dropped the whole idea of a party once his buddy bailed on him and I never saw him again that weekend) and see how many free drinks we could scam – as my birthday was officially going to start on Friday at 12 midnight. I think the coolest thing that happened at that first bar was the fact that Jeff was yelling as loud as he could "IT"S DAWN'S BIRTHDAY IN TEN MINUTES!!!" and several guys looked over and asked me how old I was going to be. I used my mother's famous trick she used to tell me as a kid when I was 11 and stupid. I lied. But I didn't just lie, I told an outrageous fib no one should have believed. In my best bimbo voice I smiled and said "I’ll be nineteen." The two guys looked around quickly and said "shut up, I wouldn’t say that too loudly – they will kick you out of the bar if they find out your age" They almost took my drink away from me, until I found my license to prove to them I could kick their ass for taking my beverage from me. That little moment at the bar made me feel so young, I was ready to travel to my next destination – The Jazz Factory. I hadn't seen my pal Tim since he left for Lake Tahoe for skiing and I wanted to celebrate with him over there (as manager he is allowed to drink). Also, he had celebrated his birthday the week before while vacationing and hadn't been able to celebrate his 30th with his pals. Tim said he wanted me to have a special shooter that I hadn't had before – and before I could ask what was in it, he was making us gulp it down in a toast to our birthdays. YAACCKKK. My god, it was disgusting, and while I was trying not to puke on the bar, all he could say was "I agree, it's a bit off." And walked off smirking. I about punched him senseless for making me swallow what was the equivalent of Liquid Drain-O, but I realize that he is quitting smoking AND he just turned 30, so I just plotted to get him at another time :) Afterwards, I left my friends for a bit (the two friends of the group had been banned from a particular club I was going to) promising them I would meet back up with them. I went off to Club One for a bit to make Wes pour me a free drink and sucker whatever fool I could find into essentially handing me free reign to his wallet (hey, I gave them a kiss on the cheek). I met back up with my pals at Oxygen and we made fun of the trailer trash in the comfort of a booth in the balcony (a treasured spot that's hard to find at the club). Mike and Leigh had made arrangements for us to go to a party over at one of their friends' house. They had a hot tub and we hung out for a bit until skin started to prune and we felt we were wearing out our welcome. We went to Wilson and Carla's house after that out in Madison and partied and drank and watched movies until 11am. I figured this was a great time to leave (I was desparate for sleep) – and we made plans for that evening to eat at the Jazz Factory – courtesy of Tim (and at that point my evil plot to get him back for the horrid mess he called a drink vanished). In the middle of my nap, my parents called to wish me a happy birthday – knowing full well I hadn't gotten home until the afternoon – they just wanted to be annoying and wish me a good time on my birthday. I woke up around 7pm to get ready for dinner. Now, I usually don't get dressed up as it's not worth my time and trouble to put on a dress unless it's for work or a funeral, but the girls wanted me to do something different, so I put on my formal gown with them so I could at least match them instead of looking like a I just got out of bed. Even Mike and Jeff (who are sometimes prone to wearing the big ass pants that are like two skirts on either leg) let us play barbie and dress them up to our liking (suits and ties of course – If I have to be uncomfortable – so do they). We got to Jazz Factory around 9:30 and imagine my surprise as they had taken the time to call up some of their other friends to come celebrate with me. What started out as six people for dinner turned into 14 – and the group number escalated as the evening went on. Tim made sure we were taken care of and even suggested a good wine for us to drink. I hogged out on the biggest steak I had ever seen and made the band play happy birthday for me while I blew out my candle on my ice cream dish. We hung out at the upstairs bar for a while being obnoxious and feeling fabulous with Leigh and Carla (I made sure they were included in the free drink specials I was getting) and we were off to Oxygen again to steal away the cool booth at the bar. We danced our asses off and had so many shooters there – and I still hadn't spent a dime :) – a sign of an evening well worth the trouble to paint my nails. We were going to Mike and Leigh's house later and told a bunch of people to come out and hang after the bars closed at 2am (Huntsville nightlife kinda sucks – so we make our own fun). After we were sweating profusely from the dancing (my ribs were starting to hurt) we made our caravan over to Mike and Leigh's house. We hung out and watched movies ( I drank a bunch of coffee – I didn't want to miss a moment of my birthday) until Mike got a wild hair up his ass and decided we should play cards for money. I don't like to play cards, I am not very good at it, and I usually lose every bit of cash that I have plus an IOU of my soul. I really didn't want to play this time either, but they told me that I could stop after I lost 10 dollars so I went along with it. Can you believe I left that table with $130.00? Talk about a lucky streak, this has never happened to me before. I can sometimes make out with paying very little over even paying nothing for a weekend of good times – but never have I gone to work with MORE money in my pocket on Monday, then I left with on Friday. I slept at their house (I couldn't drive home – so I played it safe) and woke up at 3pm to find that Wilson had brought over food (he is a FABULOUS cook) and that my birthday wasn't over yet, we were going to have a barbeque as well. We ate shrimp skewers and chicken wings till I was about to explode – so before I went into my food coma, I said goodbye and thanx to everyone there. If it wasn't for them, I'm not sure what I would have done for my birthday. I told them that to pay them back for the good time they showed me and letting me help trash three houses that weekend, we could have the gathering at my house the next weekend. I don't think I have had a better birthday like this in a long long time. The best memory I can remember is when I was six, I got a new pink bicycle and thought that was the best gift in the universe – after that, every important milestone birthday seemed to be a letdown. When I was sixteen, I couldn't get my driver's license for a week because my birthday fell on a Saturday, when I was 21 – my friends screwed up and let me sleep through the night until 4am and my birthday was over. When I turned 25, I was horribly horribly depressed about some really bad stuff that was going on in my life AND about the fact that I was closer to thirty then to twenty that I cried all day. The ones that didn't go bad were just "eh" so I really didn't expect anything mary-poppins like magical to happen to me that day (well weekend – if you don't sleep, your birthday never ends) – Although my friends don't read my webpage (surprised? You shouldn't be) or even really know about it, I want to thank them for making what could have been a disaster turn out pretty damn decent.