i would have changed very few things.

I would have to say my 30th birthday was an unequivocal success. The actual day of my birthday started out a little rocky. Had some issues at home, then at work. I had plans to hang out with Joey after work to watch a documentary called "Hell House". It was about a group of crazy Christians (imagine that...) who put together this house type of thing for Halloween. The idea was to show all of these mortal sins, like drinking, having sex, being gay, etc... and how you would go to hell if you committed any of these sins. They were totally serious about it. I think that was the best part, seeing how totally into what they were doing. Scary as hell tho, not seeing the house, but the fact they were so... crazy christian.

Anyhow, 20 mins left in the film, the DVD player complains of an unreadable disc. Wipe it off, try again. Same thing. FUCK. now i don't know how it ends! I mean, what if they got hit by a tornado (took place in texas) and all died?! I totally would have wanted to see that. Anyways... not all was lost. Got to meet Joey and hang with him. After that, i quickly changed into gym clothes and dashed out to get in an energy depleting cardio workout before the big b-day dinner!

I had requested my b-day dinner to be at Meskerem (Ethiopian restaurant). I knew that most of my friends had not had Ethiopian food before and was quite excited to see what they thought of it. I really, really enjoyed the restaurant before when Aaron and I went for lunch, i expected the same from dinner.

We all arrived and were seated. We had a very patient waitress who help make some suggestions. We ended up with two meat combo dinner things and one vegetarian platter. She also suggested we try the stuffed jalapeño pepper appetizer in addition to the beef and lentil stuff fried things we had ordered. The peppers came out and no one would try them, so i dove in. Quite hot, but very good. they were stuffed with some sort of chopped tomato something. quite good. Dinner soon came out.

The presentation was pretty cool, i thought. Two very large platters were placed on the table, each with a very modest amount of food. Looks on the faces of the people on the opposite end of the table were great... very "WTF is this". The two women who placed the platters went back to their trays to fetch bowl after bowl of meat a veggie dish. They would announce the dish, then pour it onto the platter on the table. When they were finished, we had a huge feast before us. The food was so fucking good. And it seems most everyone enjoyed it very much.

To my surprise, my mom had ordered a coconut cake from a local bakery and had it delivered. She had worked with the restaurant to have the cake brought out after dinner. I have to say, i was quite impressed. Ethiopian food is eaten with your hands- no plates, no utensils. However, they had fetched some plates, forks, and napkins for us and were quite accommodating. Overall, dinner was awesome. B-day night was awesome. Exactly what i wanted; just dinner with my best of friends.

Friday started just as another day, except I woke up early and cleaned the kitchen. And i mean i cleaned it- bleached the hell out of it. All in preparation for the party later that night. At lunch, i went to the gym to work out and to give Brian a key to the house so he could go over and bake the b-day cake. He was kind enough to offer to make me a cake. Per my request, it was a chocolate cake with strawberry cream cheese icing. It was pretty damn good.

After work, I went home, ordered a pizza for dinner and cleaned the house some more. At around 8, people started showing up- Courtney & Jayson first, i think. But before too long, more and more people showed. I never counted but I would guess upwards of 30 or so people came. It was a great party. Again, just what I wanted... a big party with all of my friends.

At some point, I passed out. I know this because i woke up naked laying in bed and I had no recollection of getting there. However, I slept great and woke up refreshed and ready to go to the gym. I drug the boy along with me and we worked out. After that, lunch at La Paz and then back home to watch some movies with Joey (this time, no DVD). After the movies, i headed up OTP to meet the boys for dinner before the comedy show, featuring Kathleen Madigan, we were to attend later that night.

The show was just fucking awesome. Very entertaining. Lots and lots of laughs. After that, we hung out at Courtney & Jayson's for a bit before heading home to sleep. The next morning, we woke up, went to work out, then lunch with Sarah and her girl, and Joey. We had planned to go see some movies after lunch. First up was the new X-Files movie. I had low hopes for this one. I had read the reviews and heard it was just another drawn out episode of the X-Files with a very poor story- and that it was. It was just okay.

After the X-Files, we saw "Wanted". I didn't have high hopes for this one either. But, as i was told before it started, it was a "fun" movie. The plot was laughable. **SPOILER** they had me up until the point they said that a fabric loom would encode the names of targets of assassination- in binary. The code was then deciphered and the kill orders were given to an assassin. I mean, seriously. A fate powered loom?? please. At this point, i gave up on "getting into" the movie and just sat back and watch a moderately hot guy get his face beaten in. **okay, end of spoiler**

After the movies, i was craving some indian food, so the lot of us went to Desi Spice for a very good dinner. After that, we went home, played some N+ and soon went to bed.

Very, very good weekend. I give it high marks. Great way to turn 30 :-D