Ben the Birthday Boy

I celebrated my birthday this week. A little bit, anyway. Despite the fun I had on my actual birthday, it doesn’t feel like I really had a birthday. It was so much more low-key than it usually is. That’s okay. The celebrating isn’t done. I plan to go out to dinner tonight with some friends, and we’re using my birthday as the excuse. I don’t even know where we’re going, but we’ll see.

On my actual birthday, the celebrations were as follows. Presents in the mid-morning, lunch at a restaurant, and then a movie date with Melanie. The same friends with whom I’m going to dinner tonight offered to babysit Eddie, Peter, and Creegan so Melanie and I could go on a birthday date. That was pretty cool of them. We went to see Gravity, which was very good. Although I didn’t walk away feeling like I personally love the movie and want to own it, it was an excellent film. It may be the best 2013 movie I’ve seen, although I haven’t seen a tremendous amount of films that were actually released during this year. We’ll see if it holds up as one of the best after a couple more months.

As for my presents, I got several. The first present I opened was a joke. I knew it was going to be a joke because my boys told me as much. They could barely contain their excitement at watching me open a gift that I was undoubtedly going to find hilarious. Perhaps this story is best told in pictures. I’ll post photos below, although I warn you that they aren’t of the greatest quality.

Holding up the first present I am to open.

This is going to be hilarious!

Punch line!

Aside from the gag gift (which was a clearance item we will legitimately pass onto someone else), I received: the latest John Mayer CD (Paradise Valley); a CD called Immortal, which features Michael Jackson music as remixed for the Cirque de Soleil show of the same name; two seasons of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia; a twin-pack of Home Alone and Home Alone 2 on DVD; three books; and a new alarm clock. The new alarm clock is especially exciting for reasons outlined here. One of the coolest things about this new alarm clock is that it automatically sets itself. You can change the time zone if needs be, but otherwise it sets itself. Isn’t that amazing? Melanie says this appears to be a standard feature on alarm clocks nowadays. Welcome to the future! Sure enough, the second I plugged in the alarm clock, it said the correct time. Pretty snazzy.

And that’s pretty much all there is to say. I’ll conclude with a few pictures. Here you go:

Two of my three books. The one on your left is a detective book whose story involves “every variety of pleasure, enticement, seduction, and delusion known to man.” The book on your right is all about improving your spirituality. Like any honest individual, I’m attracted both to sin and to salvation.

Creegan was purposely avoiding the camera, but you can see him peeking through just under Eddie’s armpit.

One more for the road.

The end.