Par-T

My birthday celebration sort of stretched through the weekend and into Monday, giving the week an enjoyable, yet exhausting start. I'm happy with the way the events played out, but--whew--I'm glad they're done.

We spent Saturday frantically preparing for a get-together to be held at our condo on Sunday. The cleaning, shopping, and cooking took up most of the day. During the evening we found some time to relax, going out for a steak dinner out and then coming home to watch Milk. This is a good time of year for DVD viewings because most of the Oscar nominees are showing up on Netflix. Say what you will about award campaigning and mainstream pedigrees, but Oscar nominated movies are usually worth watching. Milk was no exception.

Our housewarming/return-of-spring/my-birthday-celebration BBQ started at 3:00 on Sunday. Despite living here only 9 months, this ended up being one of the largest gatherings R and I have ever thrown. We pretty much invited everybody we know out here (coworkers, Newcomers, a few others) and about 25-30 people showed up. Sorry to report I didn’t take any photos. You know how much I like to document things, but having a camera around sometimes makes people uneasy or self-conscious and plus I was simply too preoccupied with co-managing the event. As you probably know, there’s a lot of work that goes into keeping a house presentable, making sure people are introduced to each other, monitoring food levels, etc. But the party was a success, and I’m happy we threw it. It definitely made my 30th birthday more memorable. R, you were right about that.

The next day, Monday, we had some guests arrive around the time my workday was ending. They included a couple of family friends (known as the H brothers) from Minnesota and a friend of theirs who lives in Vegas. The trio is spending the week visiting SoCal, so they made the drive up from LA to see what Santa Barbara is all about. I took them on the signature hike to Inspiration Point in the afternoon. Later on, R dropped us off downtown and we spent the evening eating dinner and doing some bar-hopping. It’s not very often I engage in a guys’ night out, so I took advantage of the situation and had a good time. Yes, I drank too much and stayed out way too late for a weeknight, but really, is there a better time to act immature than the point in life when you begin to feel old?