Birthday! - Part 1
A pocket-knife and a comic book. What more could a guy ask for?There's a myriad of things that I'm now able to do, since turning 18. I can go to a Federal Prison. I could buy cigarettes. I could gamble. I can sign my own liability-release waivers. I can get a credit card. Possibly most exciting, I can call the *must-be-18-years-or-older-to-call* phone numbers from late-night infomercials. I always wanted to own my own Bedazzler (tm)! A wonderful birthday, indeed.
All in all, it turned out to be a pretty crazy weekend, involving a 22 hour day, 12 computers, a rock wall, 8 kayaks, and one very tired dog. Having planned the weekend's events for almost a month, I was wildly anticipating it's coming. The entire event was split apart into two days. On Day 1, I woke up at 5 am, and spent the entire morning and afternoon at Mount Rainier National Park. With the Olympia Mountaineers, I was practicing Z-Pulley rescues. To put it simply, I would jump over a cliff, and three guys would pull me up by using a 3-to-1 mechanical advantage pulley system. In the mean time, I would just hang by my harness in the air. It took a few minutes before I realized that I could reach into my pack, after which I began eating my sandwich. Climbers not doing anything threw pieces of chocolate down to me, and I picked up some giant icicles. It's a heck lot of fun, and I came back tanned, even though clouds were sitting on the mountain all day.
Just as I got home, the guys showed up in our driveway. My friend Jessica and her fruit salad were already there, when a bad-smelling Acura and an old station-wagon pulled in. Over about half an hour, we hauled in 10 computers, an extra table, and network hardwear for all. Adding in my own computer, we were sitting at 11 Crysis-compatible PC's and 12 people to share it among. Throw in a brand new video game (Rainbow Six: Vegas 2) that I got for my birthday, along with 6 pounds of gummy-bears, and we had a recipe for an amazing night. After an incredible dinner and cake, we were ready to dig in. Bear in mind that by that time, it was my 16th hour of being awake.
It's a funny thing. Every time I go to a LAN party, we end up playing slow-moving Real Time Strategy games that have as much excitement as peanut butter on stale bread. Creamy peanut butter, not chunky. But being my birthday party, I had the honor of choosing the games that we were playing, a responsibility that I did not take lightly. Vegas 2 was followed by Unreal Tournament 3, which lead to Battlefield 2 and Savage. In the morning, we were rolling out Crysis before we packed up all of the hardwear. I think we converted my mom into a LAN-believer: she actually stayed up until midnight, watching us game. Jessica left around that time, the two women ready to go to bed.
I believe the official time that Andrew went to bed was around 3:30, too gamed-out to continue the mindless clicking. The other 7 people trawled on until 6:30 in the morning, playing Savage non-stop. But just like then, the story won't continue until the next day. I'm going to sleep now, too.
thinkandrew
posted by Andrew @ 11:07 PM
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