The Birthday Party

Sometimes, the best thing for you is the one thing you don't want to do.

My friend Al's birthday was yesterday. I owe a lot to this guy.

He hired me into the company that I'm building my career in. Thanks to his mentoring, I've been promoted 4 times in the last 2 years. He'd tell you it wasn't exactly tough considering how ambitious I am. Leadership and mentoring come naturally to me.

That and I could sell ice to Eskimos.

But I digress.

This week has been a tough one for me.

I'm normally little Kitty Sunshine... But not these last couple of weeks. And last night was his birthday.

He'd called me last Thursday to tell me not to make plans for Tuesday night because we'd be hanging out in a nearby town. And that I had no excuse. I'd been given early notice. (He thought I was going to wuss out). Truth is, I wanted to. I was in no partying mood.

But it was HIS birthday. This wasn't ABOUT me. So I prepared myself to suck it up. One of my best friends, Sean, came to meet me at my work...and he followed me to The Ale House. I didn't tell Al what was going on with me. Sean didn't mention it either. It wouldn't be fair to lay that on Al, and he'd just feel bad for "making" me be there.

I got there thinking..."I'll just paint on a happy face...help him celebrate, then go home and crawl into bed."

Imagine my surprise when I had fun! Sometimes the best thing to kick a person out of a funk is to be happy for someone else! I'd forgotten that lesson. We all got Al cheesy cards, we teased him about his "ho's in different area codes"...then we told him he was on a drinking schedule. The goal of the evening was to get him shaiza faced.

Now Al...he's a total guy's guy. So I almost died laughing when Sean leaned across the table to ask me what the biggest wussy drink I could think of was....(not counting coolers, etc). We got him a sex-on-the-beach...and had them garnish the heck out of the glass lip. It looked like the biggest fru-fru drink ever! The look on his face was comical! The look on his face when he tasted it was better. He's a total Rum and Diet Coke guy....sooo....LOL!

Next came the crazy stuff. They got him some kinda takillya shot. And then it got really creative. Sean ordered a milk shot with a slice of lime to decorate it. Al took one look and got nervous. He thought it might be a key lime pie shot... When he finally took a taste...he just shook his head.

Then there was the blowjob shot. Which we made him drink the RIGHT way... After he confiscated all our videocamera phones so that there was no blackmail material for later....LOL!

In the end, that night was exactly what I needed...and I made a friend's birthday. And that matters to me.

Being there...that's important.