My first facebook birthday

So yes I've been on facebook long enough that this was actually my second facebook birtheday, but this one had a ridiculously facebooky feel. Actually it was way better than those first two sentences would lead you to believe. I woke up to a breakfast of chocolate cake. I deferred until lunch time. (It was only putting it off for 2 hours anyway). This was my first birthday to spend anytime with family in 2 years. 3 years ago my parents were with my in Colorado for my B-day, but it was nice waking up at home.

Speaking of past B-day's. I really had no expectations for today. Comparing it to having 20-30 close summer project friends around I figured it wouldn't be nearly as good as that. But it was. I flew up to Houston, mid day. My birthday gift/our son is going to East Asia for a year gift was a weekend trip to Houston to see the Astros as a family. Pretty sweet deal. I wound up flying a day early b/c I needed to visit a certain consulate about a certain document to gain access. Therefore travelling on my B-day.

Almost didn't make it due to some ticket problems, but luckily the plane was only beginning to load as a I got through security/arrived at the gate.

I didn't realize how good it was going to be to see B-Mart again. Add on a little Drew and Sam, and it was really enough to beat the past 3 years of Snow Ridge b-days. Don't get me wrong, those were awesome, but sometimes you forget how much you miss people, and how much it means to see them again. Add on that Cabe, Garrett, my friend Omar, my brother, and my Grandfather all called me on my brithday.

By the way, not to sound unappreciative, but B-day's have to be the stupidest idea ever. What a gimic for materialism. Way to be born. Good job on not dying yet. You don't really earn a birthday. You could argue that in a few years we will be on our own and have to work and feed ourselves and whatnot to survive another year, but that's crap and you know it. B-day's are grace days. You are appreciated because of who you are, who God made you to be. It's refreshing and a bit humbling to realize, you know the only thing I did 23 years ago yesterday was manage to get pushed out into the world, and yet all these people are legitimately glad I am here.

Maybe that's why we celebrate birthdays. I like that better then getting crap. Though if you do want to get me crap, get me useful crap like money, or itunes money, or support. The best gifts yesterday were a place to sleep (B-Mart's) and 2 beers (B-Mart and Sam). But even those things were just part of the package of getting to see these guys. Maybe these birthdays are just a good day to take stock of how blessed you have been in this past year.

Oh I found out today that B-Mart took 4th place in the EA National Weightlifting Championships of the World. Not too shabby.

Since Drew and Sam never post on here (Drew just post your prayer letters) quick updates on them. Sam works for Baylor Medical doing research. Really he is the guy that kills all the rats/mice they use in experiments. In 4 days he has killed more rats then populated his building. He has since started advertising on the internet seeking rats for dissection and experimentation. If you have any please send them (live) to Sam. The good news is he is helping to come up with a vaccine to prevent the rotavirus. This causes diarrhea in third world countries and in my home town. The bad news is Sam has the squirts really really bad.

As for Drew, he has propsed that Crusade at Rice sponsor the monthly campus streakings in an effort to gain campus exposure. After all he is a business major, and we business majors know that all exposure is good exposure. Thanks Marketing 337. But really he's tired, he just got back from Branson where he secured 50 jobs for the students to work at. After doing that he enjoyed pretending he was retired and attending the afternoon matinee shows in downtown Branson. Now he's preparing to reinfiltrate Rice. He is very excited about this next year. He gets to lead the women's ministry on campus. Girls there are no female staff members at Rice, so please graduate and join staff and go to Rice for their sake. (By girls I guess by default I'm addressing Tiffany our lone female reader, you're exempt because you're at Texas and that's way cooler, sorry Drew but it is. Any other girls who accidentally read this blog should probably stop.)

Anyway, the two paragraphs above may be sligthly off in how actual events may have occurred, but they allow you to understand a little bit about what Sam and Drew are up to. If they want to set the record straight they can post on here.

Anyway (part 2) , great B-day. I love you guys. I get to see Cabe and Garrett tomorrow! And more B-Mart and Drew, and maybe some Sam too! Don't worry I saw Matt and Nathan last weekend, but they can come too if they want. As for facebook, look on my wall and count how many "Happy Birthday's" I have. It's sick. I tell you true friendship is expressed in Facebook Happy Birthday wishes. I'm being sarcastic, but I really do appreciate them. It's quite a good feeling when people at coffee shops look over your shoulder and see all the Facebook notification emails and have quizzical looks on their faces, only to turn and smile and say it's my birthday, to have them nod in understanding and say "Ahhh, right-oh". That didn't really happen but we could all imagine how cool it would be if it did. And if it did happen that quoted part should be imagined with an accent of your choice, mine was a generic British one.

Speaking of Nathan, (I was just speaking of him when I orgininally wrote this, but then I remember the title of this was facebook birthday so I had to talk about that) he should be posting a story about a real occurance soon, right?