I posted a little blurb with one hand and one eye when I got in last night. Now that it's 'The Day After' and I can see with both eyes and type with both hands, I'll see how much of last night I can remember.

McCoys is still in turmoil, so they didn't re-open last night... again. That meant that Ratskyn wasn't going to be playing, so instead we all met up at Legendz. I walked in just before 8:00, which was the scheduled start of Game 1 of the western finals between Edmonton and Anaheim. Legendz has two projectors, a giant projection tv, 3 or 4 36" CRTs and a half dozen or so 42" plasmas, plus one big daddy 50 or 60" plasma too, so no matter which way you're facing, you have hockey adn basketball playoffs to watch.

John & Zac were sitting at the bar when I walked in, and apparently told everyone it was my birthday. Andy & Fedde were given strict orders that should I try to order anything non-alcoholic, that they were to spike it. We moved from the bar to a table as we were expecting more people to show up, and Zac and I decided to do a shot of Jager at the beginning of every period, every time Edmonton scored, and when Edmonton won. Fortunately the game ended at 3-1 so we only put back seven shots of Jager.

Joanne and Leah showed up next, but they both had early shifts this morning so they didn't stay too late. Late enough to get into a little bit of trouble though. Zac was explaining his favorite picture on the wall at Legendz, over by the bar. It's a famous picture of Humphrey Bogart getting "caught" on camera looking down Marilyn Monroe's top while Lauren Bacall gives him the hairy eyeball from his other side. We couldn't see the picture from our table, so with a little embellishment from Leah and I, we recreated it right there at the table.

Paulie "Potter" showed up next with a new bandage on his forehead. Paulie is a world-class competetive drinker... on his 40th birthday a few years ago, he went through 34 shots at the Lone Star. Most of us did some of the shots and all fell out of the race along the way, but Paulie managed them all before passing out... AND he showed up for work the next morning... Ten minutes late, sounding rather hoarse and with alcohol oozing out of his pores, but he showed up and was functional. With this background, imagine our surprise when we heard that he fell off his stool at Calico Jack's (or was it Rackham's?) and cracked his head open requiring seven stitches. Paul now has a lightning bolt shaped scar on his skull that looks remarkably like Harry Potter's, so we've been calling him Paulie Potter, Harry's older brother ever since. Unlike Seb, when Paulie makes up shots, they actually taste good. Paul's contribution to mixology that we tried last night was Crown Royal and Kahlua. I don't know if it has a name, but it tasted better than it smelled.

Bert arrived next, followed by Matty and then Eleni showed up in her scooteriffic jacket. Jason the FNG showed up next, the poor bastard didnt even have time to go home and change and was still wearing his work clothes. Gary & Christine showed up to say hi, and I shocked Christine by giving her a kiss on the lips. Normally when someone gives me a hug-and-kiss hello or goodbye, I go for and offer up the cheek. Christine made a comment a few months ago that I was the only guy on the island who turned my head when she tried to kiss me, so it became sort of "our thing" after that. She would try to kiss me and I would try to get it to land on my cheek. Since it was a special occasion this time, I didn't turn my head and when she landed on my lips her eyes flew wide open in surprise that I didn't turn my head!

The second period started so Zac and I ordered up another shot of Jager, but when Freya brought them over, she also had a tray full of shots from the bar. It also had a name that I can't remember and was Jack Daniels and Butterscotch schnapps. Tasted OK but was a pretty tough one to get down. Must be the Jack... or maybe it was because I had just done a shot of Jager 15 seconds earlier.

Seb finally made it down and Michelle showed up shortly after and then closer to midnight, Pam showed up as well, but just for a few minutes to say hi. Seb's contribution to the mixology last night was a Black Widow. Tequila and Black Sambucca are NOT the chocolate and peanut butter of the alcohol world. Fortunately my tongue was sufficiently numb by that point that it wasn't too much of an issue, although I could feel it slam into my liver about two minutes later.

Steph made it by after she got off work, John & Zac started wrestling, and then after that we started wondering what sort of underwear Eleni was wearing that night, so we had to check and see. We were right! a black lace thong! At some point, Edmonton scored an empty net goal, so we had another shot of Jager, and then realized that there was only 26 or so seconds left in the game, so when the first ones arrived, we ordered the second ones up in preparation for the win.

After that things started getting fuzzy. It was getting on towards closing time, and I kept seeing camera flashes all over the place. Eleni and Michelle both had their cameras out, and Zac was taking random pictures with my camera. When I downloaded them this morning, there were 92 pictures on my camera. Zac sorta disapeared for a few minutes, but then we found him laying down in a booth. Freya brought him his tab and he tried to sign it while holding the pen in his teeth. Things started winding down then and after the round of goodbyes and hugs and kisses to everyone, we all left around 1245 or so and I staggered home. Last night was a good time to realize that living across the street from my favorite bar is "A good thing".

I came home, had the motility to undress myself and crawl into bed, and noticed that even though it was turned off, the ceiling fan was moving. Not spinning which would have been bad, but just turning. It was then that the phone rang. I have to look at it today and see how to turn the ringer down because it scared the beejesus out of me. It was mom & dad calling to say happy birthday. She emailed me earlier to say that she was going to wait and call today instead because she knew I would be going out, but then they decided to give it a try anyway and caught me at my monosyllabic best.

So another year has come and gone. The world has changed so much in the last 33 years that it's hard sometimes to grasp the changes. Things that don't change in 33 years or even 100 years are good friends. Last night I saw an outpouring of love (and jager) that you just don't see very often anymore. I also realized that my core group of friends are like that all the time. I refer to them a lot as my surrogate family, and that we're so tight-knit because we're all away from home and our families. There is, however, a special dynamic with us that we would be the same way if we were all living elsewhere: in the US, in Europe, on a deserted island (ok more deserted than this one) or even in a lab on the moon. Not that I want to have anything more to drink right now, or probably even for the next week, let's raise em up one more time. Here's to the best friends a guy could ask for.