Birthday weekend...

Ohhkay... I know you're all probably wondering what happened this weekend, and whether or not it was totally fabulously awesome.

So, Thursday I drove down to New Brunswick, with a car full of random stuff that Steve told me to bring. I already told the story of what happened Thursday night so I'll start with Friday morning. Steve had to get his insurance paperwork to the DMV, so he got up really early and let me sleep in. What I didn't know was that he was also running errands. He took my bikes which I had been storing in the basement to the bike shop and had them fixed up. I had been meaning to do that, I just hadn't gotten around to it. So, now I have two working bikes. When Steve got back, I still didn't know what was happening so he had to tell me what kind of clothes to wear. Good thing I brought a lot of options.

We went to the mall first because I've been meaning to get a new bathing suit... not that there's anything wrong with the ones I have... just... yeah... its a girly thing. Anyway the one I fell in love with was two pieces, and each piece was $80 marked down to $60. So I said forget that, I'll swim naked before I'll pay $120 for practically no fabric. This is why I hate bathing suit manufacturers. I could get a prom dress for $120. I could get a two hour massage. I could have food for twelve days.

So anyway when I was done non-shopping, we went to the park next to the mall and rode the bikes around. That was so much fun and its been so long since my bikes were functional.

When we were done biking, we sat near the car with a cooler of cheese, crackers, fruit, and sparkling cider. The ducks in the area decided they needed to be invited to this little picnic.

When we got back in the car, Steve made me put on a blindfold so I didn't know where we were going next. He stopped somewhere and said, "Just sit here, I'll be right back." In a few minutes he came back and said, "Ok they're being bums and think its silly that I blindfolded you. We're back at my house and there are people inside. You can take the blindfold off." I went into the house and I could hear that everyone was in the kitchen, except for Rod. I said hi, and we kinda talked a little and then a few minutes later Navin came out of the kitchen and said, "Oh! Waait! SURPRISE!!" So the whole night Navin kept "surprising" me at non-climactic moments. Anyway, the surprise was an Indian dinner masterminded by Anissa but cooked by everyone.

Left to right, you will see, in no particular spelling-correctness, papadum (Indian tortilla chips), egg curry, some sort of pea-tomato-paneer thing, tuna cutlets, a saffron-rice-raisin-cashew dish, chicken tikka masala, palapum (a crepe-like pancake thing made out of fermented rice flour), spinach with coconut, and chipati (kind of like pita bread).


Left to right, you will see: Taylor and Anissa; Taylor, Anissa, Navin; and Nick, Mike, James, Rod, and Steve.


After that, there was Mango, Chocolate, and Party Cake ice cream, and different toppings that matched the different flavors. And Mango Lassi, a yogurt Indian drink... kinda like a smoothie. While we were all crammed around the table Navin mentioned a movie later, and everyone told him not to give away anymore secrets, at which point he SURPRISED me again.

Later, Cara showed up to join us for the mysterious movie, which turned out to be Harry Potter. While we were there, we sat with Joyce, a former jujitsuka, and her boyfriend Lenny. I haven't seen her in a long time. That night I completely passed out, exhausted and happy that I got to see all my friends.

In the morning, Steve asked if I was interested in visiting some of his friends who were all planning on hanging out and playing frisbee. I said sure, so we went over but they weren't playing frisbee by the time we got there because I was so exhausted from Friday that I slept in really late. So we sat around and played Hoopla, which is a sort of extension game of Cranium. It was fun.

Then we left and went back to Steve's place, where he told me I should change into different clothes, and get my cowgirl boots. I ended up with his Indiana Jones hat because its cooler than my hat, despite how cool my hat is haha. But I neglected to get any awesome hat pictures.

Anyway, once dressed up, we went to the Colorado Cafe, which is part restaurant, part bar, part dance floor, and part hicksville. We made it in time for some country line dancing lessons, and learned "Sundance" which is a 4-wall line dance, and "Blue Rose" which is a partner dance. We shared some buffalo chili and Steve had ribs; I had a chicken sandwich. Then we went back and danced a little more but mostly watched white people dancing (haha), and then Steve went on the mechanical bull and lasted 24 seconds. Note the bull's Jesus fish bumper sticker.



Then we danced some more, and watched people dance, making the total number of hours there about 6 1/2. It was kind of funny, there was one black girl, and one Asian (Steve) and one guy that looked like he was part Asian, part something European. Everyone else was white and usually had a beer belly. Yay for Hicksville! And for Day Two, Steve succeeded in completely wearing me out. Maybe he was trying to get me tired enough not to wake up so he could draw a moustache on me while I slept or something.

So, that was supposed to be the end of the weekend, but because we saw Joyce and Lenny on Friday, Joyce invited us to go to the shooting range with them. Steve is learning a lot of gun and knife defense techniques in jujitsu so he was really interested. I wasn't as interested, but still thought it would be neat to go.

Steve got a lot of bull's eyes, when he took three minutes to aim.


Steve with a .22, and a .45 (the same type used by James Bond in Casino Royale).



And me, taking my time trying to figure out how to hold and shoot a .22


So, that's not all the pictures from this weekend, but only the important ones haha. Anyway, I had a great weekend, and it was even better that some of it was spontaneous and a surprise even to Steve. Now he knows how it feels hahaha.

And thanks to everyone who came and made dinner. It was SOOOO yummy!