A Very Different Birthday

Every time I find myself in what I think is forever, I find out I couldn't be more wrong. Last year if you were to ask me what would be happening on my 23rd birthday I would have explained a vision so far from what happened a few days ago that it would be laughable.

Oddly enough, on my 21st birthday, the day of debauchery for most, I had half a Mike's Hard Lemonade and a glass of Port. Nobody bought me alcohol. Nobody bought me a drink. You get the idea. Oh this birthday, however, I was given a bottle of Bodegas Norton Malbec, a Jager set with a bottle and 2 shotglasses, and a bottle of Ultimat Vodka:



My family came to town to celebrate with my sister and I (her birthday is 4 days before mine). They met up with me at the Universal Citywalk where Parachutes were going to play a show at B.B.King's.

We set up and ran over a few songs:



Look how out of control my hair is! And I don't know where Laura is.

After a huge crowd assembled we played our hardest despite the normal difficulties of lazy sound engineers, monitors being too low, and bright lights in the eyes. Aron blew everyone away with his vocals, Laura blew everyone away who likes to think that girls can't drum, Megan blew everyone away by playing a viola in a rock band, and I played the usual trio of bass, drum, and Rhodes:



Wow...that came across very bad 80's music video montage-ish.

Afterwards I said goodbye to my family and then hung out with all my friends:



From left to right: Jennie looks very model-ish (in a good way), Jeffrey looks like he's being attacked by the flash, Wendy is making a 'G' with her hands (I think in honor of my birthday), I look simply psychotic...kinda "if you take the picture you'll be sorry", Aron is pulling off a starry-eyed dreamer kinda look, Megan looks quite ecstatic (and is her tongue more orange than usual?), and Laura looks like she has a secret.

The rest of the night was filled with bad food, heat lamps, illegal dancing, cold winter air, a sock store, and lots of laughter.

All in all, a wonderful birthday. Thank you to everyone who called, wrote, texted, or thought happy birthday wishes. You guys all rock.

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And it all ends with certain memories.


i love you! i love you so much that when you're away, i feel like part of me is away. i love you so much that when i think about you, all i can think about is how i need you to be here with me and never leave again. i love you so much that i can't help but worry that even spending a lifetime with you will still not be enough.