This year, instead of meeting everyone at the bar (sorry RayJs) I decided to have a poker party in my new home. Nothing like celebrating my first birthday in my new house.
It was shocking to me that not one member of my family came. They were all invited, but I guess they didn’t want to play poker with my friends. It was even shocking to my friends. “Where’s your mom?” “Where’s your sister?” “Where are your parents?” were questions I got several times.
But, my awesome friends showed up in spades to rock out, drink out, and poker out.
We must first give props to awesome Elena who came over HOURS early and made all the food. She wouldn’t let me help. I had planned the menu and bought the groceries, but she did ALL the cooking. She also kept the food stocked all night and was the unofficial bartender. Which is why I let her park in my garage!
Then, Mark and Kelly were the next to arrive, Kelly brought me another present, which was silly, but did contain a tiara!. (You’ll notice in the pictures how much I enjoyed the tiara…I might wear that for every birthday!)
That was their actual present to me (the banner). Coupled with the tiara…
The necklace I am wearing was a gift for Elena who saw it and thought of me. Complete coincidence that it matched my outfit for the night like it was custom-made for it!
That’s the poker table before we began. (Amy and Frodo showing) The empty chair you see is mine, and that is my martini, which I was drinking out of a singing straw. Every time I took a sip, the straw played Happy Birthday. That was another gift from Kelly. Later, I switched to beer and still used a straw.
See?
One fun thing we did was Kelly made everyone go around the table and say how they know me and one thing they like about me. I got some amazing comments. Justin said his favorite thing about me is that I give great hugs. That’s MY favorite thing about HIM. I’ve been telling people for years that he’s the best hugger I know. It was so funny that he thinks that about me, too.
Kelly’s husband, Mark, had the funniest comment of the evening when he said that I’m a good kisser. Everyone cracked up at that. I don’t really remember what everyone else said, which is weird, because we did it twice, but I was kind of mashed.
Kelly also had me do a pic with everyone there, and while they’re not photographic genius, I’m happy to have them!
Amy and me. (She got engaged a couple weeks later! Congrats Amy and Joe!)
Me and Mark (and Kelly’s arm)
Kelly and me. (In our most awkward picture ever?)
Me and Justin
Mindy and me. (Oh, how I love that picture. Not enough pics in the world of the two of us!)
Me and Lane. (Again, awkward. Whose arm is that? How many arms are IN that picture?)
Me and Frodo. I love this one, too! A friend I don’t spend NEARLY enough time with.
Me and Tommy. He never smiles for pictures. But he should, because he has a fantastic smile. And I love how wild and crazy my hair looks in that pic!
We had dancing and singing, in addition to two games of poker. Mark won BOTH poker games and then no one wanted to play anymore.
No idea what is going on here, obviously we’d moved on to Catch Phrase (I love that game!) but I was happy about that, I swear.
Poker stakes.
Actually, this could be more awkward. Mark was supposed to frame us on either side of Ben Franklin. Apparently, he did not understand the directions. Also, he gave us no warning and snapped this in 0.2 seconds. Lucky we’re smiling.
There were a lot of people standing on chairs. I don’t know why. They just were.
Weird…but strangely fun.
You know how poker players always wear sunglasses to hide their eyes? I found these in a St. Patty’s day clearance bin and thought they’d be funny. Somehow, there is no picture of ME wearing them, though they were a hit at they party.
(And I vaguely recall taking that picture and thinking it was straight….)
Elena won for best shoes…
I don’t even remember taking that picture.
Mindy, who somehow got ahold of my tiara, gave us tickets to the gun show. (and you’ll note she’s on a chair again!)
At some point, we moved from dancing and standing on chairs to dancing on chairs (seems inevitable, doesn’t it?)
By the way, I am not putting any of this in chronological order, because, well, I don’t know the order things happened. Most of this is a bit blurry for me. What I CAN tell you is that all the events, regardless of the order in which they happened were unbelieveably fun!
Justin took this, I think. And can I say of the four pics of this type found on my camera, my eyes were closed in all of them and Min and I are holding each other up. I’m going out on a limb and placing this toward the END of the timeline.
The thing I think is funny is that I am holding my candle lighter, from my living room. I’m guessing that Mindy wanted to smoke and didn’t have a lighter (she never has a lighter) and I must have gone upstairs and got this, because I don’t have a lighter anymore. I’m kind of impressed I would have thought of that.
Kelly was the first one to tap out, around midnight, I’m told.
I like the fact that her jeans are in one corner, her shoes in another, and her headband is flung away. Clearly she is comfortable in my house!
Tom was the next to go. I don’t know what possessed me to take photos of my friends passed out, but I am sure glad I did!
We lost Elena after that.
I know it is hard to tell, but trust me, that’s her, bundled under that blanket!
Mark went down at 4am.
You’ll notice he has taken Kelly’s place at the foot of my bed. That’s because she rallied!
Justin is clearly surprised by this!
At some point, Amy and Frodo left, but I can’t tell you when that happened. I don’t even remember it.
The whole event lasted from 7pm Saturday night until 7am Sunday morning.
That’s right, we partied until 7:00 am!
We are clearly Rockstars! The only people to last that whole time?
And yeah, we appear to be standing on chairs again. WTF?
But, we had such a great time. I was tired for three days after that, since I didn’t go to bed until noon on Sunday…but I have such great memories photos from that night.
Obviously, it is clear that I have the absolute best friends in the world. I love them all so much and am truly grateful that they come and shower me with love and affection at least once a year.
Thanks, friends! Love you all, so much.
One last photo?
I call this one…..
…Aftermath!
Livlife 
First of all “Happy Birthday!” I won’t ask your age, cause that’s just sooo inappropriate. That being said, I’m 48 and don’t mind a bit, cause I look freaking great for my age! 🙂 Sorry, I’m all about my bad-self sometimes. Anyway, I stumbled upon your blog under the tag ‘humor’ and the pic made you all look like you were having such a good time, I just had to stop by and participate. It was a great post. The pics were awesome. Made me wish I were there.
Oh, and I read your about page. I’m a Midwesterner too. Born and raised in Iowa. I think in the blog world that makes us neighbors or something, doesn’t it?
I have never laughed so hard out loud at a blog. Mark and I were passing the laptop back and forth cracking up. I must say ALL those photos were really good of me. Especially the one at 4am. Wow, I an a classy lady. Funny how I never stood on a chair. .. I don’t think.
Also, there’s one typo. . .can you find it. . .you don’t do it often. . .
Yes, I see I have a typo too.
I’m glad you laughed at it. It was funny just writing it because so much of it I don’t remember, if I didn’t have the pictures….
And I’m sure there is a typo. I didn’t go back and proof that one because it was so long and I had others I wanted to get done. And I’m not going back now. If you read it and only found one typo, I’m good with that.