Birthday!

Yep, that’s right, it’s April 5th, and what does that mean?  Why, it means that it’s my birthday!  I turned 20 today, and I had a lot of fun!  This post will reflect what I’ve done over the past few days to celebrate my birthday, so sit tight, and enjoy the ride!

The first celebrations started on April 3rd, or last Friday.  I hadn’t spoken to any friends for around 4 or 5 days, as I had just been a complete shut-in when not working… I don’t quite know why.  But what that led to was fantastic, as I turned on my computer in the morning, like I usually do, and somehow got to talking to Ben over Skype.  We then spent the subsequent 4 hours playing Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, and Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 before deciding to try and get in touch with Ty, to see if he wanted to do something as well.

After waiting for Ty to have a shower, and check on some other things–I have no clue what they were, as it was Ben who called Ty–Ben headed out to Tyland to pick Ty up, and then back to my place to pick me up, as we had decided to go out and celebrate my birthday by having one of our traditional birthday dinners.  We ended up going to The Beach Buoy, in Davis Bay, which is by far one of my favourite restaurants on the Sunshine Coast, because they make the same brand of onion rings that my parents’ old restaurant used to have…  Anyway, we all ordered our meal, and sat out on the deck outside, and the sun sort of came out of nowhere, making it nice and bright, and warm for my birthday-celebratory meal.  After hanging out there for at least an hour and a half, we headed back towards Sechelt because I wanted to stop in at the local Movie Gallery, to inqure about the Nintendo DSi‘s release date–which happened to coincide with my birthday–and if they would be getting any in, if I could pre-order one, etc.

It turns out Movie Gallery had gotten exactly one black matte DSi in, and weren’t going to get any others in before the release date.  They of course were unable to sell it until Sunday, but forewarned me that someone else had been in looking for one as well, and that I should come in early on Sunday just before they open to guarantee it for myself.  I told them I’d be there, decided to buy Kirby Super Star Ultra for the DS,  and then set off with Ben and Ty towards my place.

Upon arrival at my place, we watched a movie Ben had rented a little while ago called Revolver starring Jason Statham, albiet with hair, which took a few hours, and ultimately I didn’t enjoy all that much.  It was interesting, yes, but I felt that the plot had gotten kind of muddled up half way through, and the original story was buried underneath some contrived psychological plot that wasn’t originally there.  The movie drew you in, and then spat on whatever you had started to expect–although once I realized the movie was going in that direction, I had all new expectations/theories about what was going on, and I was right at the end… but I digress; after watching the movie we decided to play a bit of Super Smash Bros. Brawl on ma’ Wii, and after an hour or more of that, Ben and Ty headed out, since I had to work in the morning, and Ty had some sort of plans the following day as well.

On Saturday, I didn’t really do much birthday-wise, as I had to work all day, but I did have some fun hanging out with Adam for a little while at work, and a few customers wished me a happy birthday.

On Sunday–my actual Birthday, April 5th–I got up early around 8:30, and got ready rather speedily, as I had to get to Movie Gallery before the opened to secure the DSi for myself.  I woke my mom up, and she gave me a ride in, getting us there around 9:35.  She was rather tired, so she head over to Starbucks to get herself a coffee, and a venti green tea latte for me.  At first I was quite content to remain seated in the van, but after seeing a few cars drive by the Movie Gallery I started to get paranoid–and with good reason–and perched myself precariously atop the curb outside Movie Gallery‘s doors.

Within all of 5 minutes of sitting there, a man I recognized from the Halo 3 release–a man who I soon knew was the one who wanted the DSi–drove up, looked at the door to the store, and then right into my eyes.  I nodded, and he glared at me, and immediately drove out of the parking lot, onto the highway, and away from the store.  After a while longer, my mom returned from Starbucks, and we sat for about 15 – 20 minutes drinking our respective beverages, waiting for the store to open.  It did, I entered, I asked for the DSi, and the man behind the counter got a large grin on his face. DSi/DS Lite

“Ah, I knew it would be you,” he said.  “Me?” I inquired.  “We had a bit of a pool going, I bet $30 that you’d get the DSi, another coworker bet $30 that the other guy would get it, and someone else bet $10 that neither of you would show up, each thinking the other got it. I just won $70 because of you.” I was pretty surprised, but happy that I had beaten the other guy there.  I told the guy that I was pretty happy too, and that I was only buying it today rather than waiting a few days, because it was also my birthday, and he gave me $20 off as a birthday present!  It was pretty awesome!

After buying the DSi, me and my mom headed home, and I immediately pried the box open, and started setting it up online, and registering it with Club Nintendo.  And for a little over an hour, I sat in my room, playing with the DSi‘s new features, and trying out a few DS games on it to see how the screen-size affected them.  I ended up sending a message to Jeff about the DSi over Skype, and found out that he wasn’t using his computer–but a friend of his and Quin’s, Chris, was.  He then had to go, and I figured that was all I’d hear from Jeff that day, even though on Saturday we had made plans to hang out on my birthday.

All of twelve seconds later, I recieved a text message from Jeff asking if I was awake.  I replied, telling him that I was indeed, and he then phoned me, and we finished our plan making, and he said he would head over pretty quickly.  Quin ended up coming too–score!–and we watched a bit of Space Jam while I ate my special birthday breakfast…at like 11:30/noon.  We then retreated into the basement to play Super Smash Bros. Brawl on the Wii, and after that Quin had to head home, as he got a call from his dad asking him to do so.

After that, me and Jeff decided to play Kirby Super Star Ultra multiplayer on our collective DSes. (I on my DSi, him on his DS Lite, with my DS Lite sitting off to the side.)  We ended up doing so for about 6 hours, and nearly completed the entire game, except that he had to go home as it was getting late, and my parents were waiting to make dinner after he left.  Just for the record, I am pretty sick of Kirby right now, although playing for 6 hours straight was still pretty awesome.

Finally, me and my parents sat down outside to our first barbequed steak of the year, and it was fan-freaking-tastic.  I knew I had missed it, but I didn’t know how much ’til I tasted it again.  After that, we had some of my special 20th Birthday cake (not the 20th Birthday cake I’ve eaten, but the cake to celebrate my 20th Birthday) which I had described at great length to both Cindy, the head cake designer at the local Marketplace IGA, and to my mom, who works in both the Deli and Bakery alongside Cindy, so that she could help make sure that the cake was exactly perfect. (Click on the picture of the cake to the right to go to the Flickr photoset for my 20th Birthday!)

I turned 20. Can you tell?

I had first gotten the idea for a Neapolitan cake during a period wherein I hadn’t eaten ice cream for longer than I could remember, and was really, really craving some.  I decided that I wanted a vanilla/chocolate cake, with strawberry icing, and a giant chocolate 20 on top–you might notice that the 20 on top of the cake isn’t chocolate, but it’s atop a chocolate base, which makes it even better–and decided that I also wanted Bavarian Cream in it, as well as all sorts of other whipped cream and icing on it as well.

Well, Cindy hadn’t ever made a flavoured icing before, and was worried that it wouldn’t work out, but after my mother promised to pay for the cake, even if it was a total disaster, Cindy took the chance, and ended up making one extremely fantastic cake.  I hear it has even inspired her to make all sorts of flavoured icing cakes now, and that she was very excited about the way that it turned out.

Anyway, that’s how I spent my 20th Birthday weekend.  I hung out with nearly all of my friends, I got to play a lot of video games–mostly on Nintendo consoles, but they’re the best for parties and what not!–and eat a lot of great food.  I’m happy with the way it turned out, and I also got to write a nice long post on my blog, which I’ve not done for quite some time.

April 5, 2009 · Filed Under Journal

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