Sunday May 2, 2004

[Watch out!  It’s super-long Xanga entry time!]

Got in a little birthday showering/brawl the moment I got home after Baylight small group on Friday night.  Hehe, I didn’t even realize what was going on when Brian called me to see if I was “planning to come home tonight.”  At first, when I went upstairs, the boys were playing video games in Kang’s room.  Then Brian let the cat out of the bag about the impending showering attempt.  There seemed to be a bit of hesitation and Kang and Dan just kind of stood there, waiting to see if Brian was serious.  But we all knew it was going down when Brian emptied his pockets of his wallet and keys and I carefully laid down my cell phone.  (Theme from “The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly” goes here.) 

My first plan: Mad dash for my room!  Of course, they rushed in after me and I realized I was cornered if I stayed much longer.  Mad dash down the hallway, past the bathroom, and fly down the stairs!  By now everyone was into it (except Kate and Wael, who remained upstairs, oblivious to the ensuing struggle).  Arms and legs were flying and I got a great takedown against Brian when he tried to trip me after applying a Full Nelson on me.  I took “You really knocked the wind out of me” as a compliment.  I was happy to make their dragging me back up the stairs as cumbersome as possible by hanging on to every little nook and cranny of the architecture that I could dig some fingers and toes into.  Then I screwed up by trying to scissor Kang with my legs, since that just made it easier for him to carry me up the stairs (hmm, need to work on that).

Once up the stairs, my primary thought was focused on how to eke out an opportunity to get back downstairs, but no luck.  Three against one was just a little too much in the end.  At least I didn’t suffer the shame of actually getting dumped into the bathtub.  Brian had to just spray me with the shower head  before we broke the glass shower doors (ahh!! hot water!!).  Wow, things have changed so much since sophomore year, when Brian caked me on my birthday and then the IV gang carted me off to the shower without a hint of a struggle from me.  Poor Anne had to do all of the fighting for me.  =P

Back downstairs, as the adrenaline wore off, my legs started to quiver incontrollably from the fatigue.  What a weird feeling!  I don’t think I felt like that even when I ran 22 laps (~10.5 miles) for my 22nd birthday at 1:30 in the morning.  Anyway, it was satisfying to hear that everyone got a good workout.  =]  Eventually, Kate and Wael came downstairs and I got to throw Wael to the ground a few times just for fun.

The next morning, I had a birthday lunch with my family.  Even Vincent came to surprise me.  That was so cool.  I saw my coworker Daisy at ABC Seafood Restaurant too, and apparently she’s been going there with her husband and son every week for the past 6 or 7 years.  Wow.

After massage class in the afternoon (which always makes me fall asleep these days), I helped out with a jujitsu demo for a local kids gymnastics club.  It was fun to watch these little 6- to 8-year-olds doing amazing feats with their bodies.  I wish I took gymnastics when I was a kid.  It would probably make my jujitsu practice so much better right now!  Anyway, as we waited, I was getting pretty anxious, since I’ve never given a public jujitsu demo before.  But it was fun!  Just like we got to see some neat tricks from the kids, we got to show them and their parents some neat tricks that we teach.  Hopefully, most of the kids didn’t go home and try to throw their little brother afterward.  Hehe.

 Finally, I got to meet Brian’s mystery girl, Andrea, at her surprise birthday dinner.  There were three people there celebrating birthdays.  I had a surprising amount of fun, considering that I didn’t know anyone there in the beginning except Brian and my high school classmate Tim.  I was glad I could go in with a open attitude.  I felt that I got to meet a lot of people and make a lot of connections, which made the whole thing well worth the time.  It was an unusual treat to get to find that a lot of the people there knew my high school friends.  I actually felt quite at home with a group of people who were very close in age to me.  I love Baylight, but even there I sometimes feel like “the young one” who isn’t very experienced / knowledgeable / relatable / desirable.  Anyway, for an evening, it was a refreshing change of pace.  I even shocked myself by my forwardness in more than one instance.  (Don’t worry, I wasn’t drunk and it wasn’t embarrassing.)  Generously, Brian paid for my pricey birthday dinner though he was already covering the cost for his special friend. 

Tonight, I’m having a *final* (I think) birthday celebration dinner in Mirrielees with my wonderful drawmates.  Maybe for the last time.  *Sniff*