I don't have a really good reason for being so absent from the blog. Mostly laziness. My dream was to present you all with a video blog. I thought it would be quicker for me to make and easier for you to watch than the traditional takes-me-eighteen-thousand-hours-to-write-a-post route. As we can all clearly see, that didn't happen. I had to find my video camera in storage (a.k.a. hiding in an old purse) and then figure out how to upload and edit a video. I found the camera, but it wasn't charged. So I charged it and now I can't get it to turn on. Awesome. I thought about using my phone but I know that a) the quality won't be great and b) I know I can't do what I want in one take. I still want to make it happen, and I haven't completely given up but I have to post something. If not for you, at least for my naggy mom (love you!) and for my own peace of mind.
Lets take a trip back in time, all the way back to...my birthday! It was only 2 weeks ago but it feels like months have passed.
Click through to read about my party!
I knew for my 25th birthday I wanted to go all out. I wanted to have the most fun I possibly could. Last year I found out about a place called Pump It Up and knew I had to go there someday. What better day than my birthday?? I called to make sure they didn't have some stupid rule like Chuckie Cheese about needing so many kids per so many adults or whatever. The woman on the phone said they had a group of 40 year olds coming in for a party later that night and she assured me no children were needed. You know that's a plus in my book! I booked the party right then. 2 months in advance.
When it was just over a month away I sent an invite to the people I wanted to come. Please, do not be offended if I didn't invite you! I wanted everyone I know to be able to come, but I wouldn't have been able to afford it. I could afford to rent out the space and with that price I was able to have 25 people. Sure sounds like a lot right? Let me tell you, it was hard to make decisions. I invited my long time friends (all the way from elementary school!), my bestest friends, and some people I thought really deserved a couple hours of fun. I gave them plenty of notice in the hopes that they would then have plenty of time to plan for it. Had I known how many people weren't going to make it ahead of time, I would have invited others but unfortunately it didn't work out that way.
A few of us made plans to meet at my house before hand and carpool there, since it's all the way in Beaverton. A gave me my present when she got to my house. I have been anticipating this present for so long. She's been working on it for a while now, and her daughter tried to give away the surprise by telling me it was "weird looking". No matter. Nothing could have prepared me for the awesomeness of it.
 |
| taking a bite out of corn(y captions) |
At this point we had some time to kill...and thanks to some fun childhood memories care of my mother, I had bought a few (more than a few) cans of silly string. Which proved perfect for time killing! We headed outside, all armed with cans and the attacks began. Silly...sorry, it's actually "goofy" string, was everywhere. Before I even made it out the door the trampoline was covered. A and I headed back in to reload. I could hear the others outside screaming and running. I knew it was going to be a good day.
We slowly made our way out the door. Er...we tried to. There were too many enemies. I made a run for it, spraying anyone in my line of sight. Luckily, K2 was sitting on the chair outside making him an easy target. It only took a few minutes before the chaos died down. Those cans don't hold a lot of goof in em.
It was finally time for us to pack ourselves into our cars and head to the funnest place on the west side of town. I used my awesometastic phone to direct us there. I still absolutely love my phone...aside from the issues I have with texting but I think that's just something I need to work on. On the drive there we opened up the glow sticks I had stocked up on at the dollar tree earlier that day. I had opted for the glow in the dark party as soon as I heard about it. You wear glow sticks and they turn off the lights while you bounce. Gimmie!
As I walked to the front door, I saw that they had put a sign up wishing me a happy birthday! It's the small touches like that that make me happy. I headed in and they were expecting me. Greeted me by name even. I texted a few people to see how far they were so we could decide whether we would wait for them or start the party right away. Decision: Party!
They made us watch a video about proper play etiquette. Our "party coordinator" laughed at us as we shouted the answers to the questions in the video and then we were ready to play. We followed PC down the hall and into play room A. I saw a giant blow up slide to the right, a blow up obstacle course to the left, and another big blow up thing in the back. I was so excited at that point that I could feel my blood coursing through my veins. PC asked if we had a cd we wanted to listen to. Anything we want? Kid Cudi it is! I ran out to my car to grab my cd while everyone started taking their shoes off. When I came back inside the lights had been shut off, there were pretty colored lights dancing off the walls and blow up things, and I could hear laughing. I basically hopped out of my shoes and ran in. The slide was so much fun! Racing friends through the obstacle course was effing awesome! Jumping in the jump room was the best way to cool off, thank you air holes! 10 minutes in and all of us were panting like we were running a marathon but we couldn't stop ourselves. It was just too much fun. Hearing rap with curse words play on the speaker system while we jumped around in a place built for children, acting like children, just made me laugh even more.
S decided I should race PC through the obstacle course since I was apparently the fastest of all of us and he said he would race us if we wanted to. We convinced him to do a couple of runs before we raced since I was already tuckered out and he wasn't out of breath at all. Watching him go through the course, I knew I was going to be in trouble. He leaped over things. Made it all look so easy. 2 runs through and he was of course not tired at all. Oh well, it was time to race. Ok, so I cheated a little by starting .14 (there's a point in front of that number damn it!) seconds before him. S put me up to it. That's my story.
I was actually doing pretty good. I kept up with him through most of it. Then we came to the rope climb up to the top of the slide at the end and that em effer stood up there and shook the whole damn thing until I fell all the way back down. Then he kept shaking it making it nearly impossible to make it back up. Jerk face. When I finally made it down the slide I called him a cheater and I couldn't help but laugh. He obviously has a lot of fun at his job.
The lights came back on, accompanied by sad moans. Our time was up already? No no my friends! It's time for room 2! Our shoe cubby cart where we stashed our shoes and purses was wheeled into the second room without anyone noticing because as soon as the door opened we were like a pack of wild children running in to check everything out. This room had a way bigger slide, a blow up basketball court, and a giant room with a giant blow up jump button. Ok, that sure sounds weird. Rest assured, it was awesome.
As I was jumping my heart out, S yelled to me that we had some latecomers. I crawled my way out of the jump thing and saw my cousins taking their shoes off. Excitement! I ran to hug them. I was scared they weren't going to make it so I was beyond happy to see them. We got to jumping right away. And sliding. And hoop shooting. Everywhere I looked people were running around and having fun. Exactly what I wanted.
Until they switched from my cd to their radio station...and Miley Cyrus came on. Oh ew. I came off the slide and walked staight to PC begging him to turn on anything but her. He tried his best. It seemed to be a struggle and I could hear her voice shut on and off. It just kept coming back...Horrendous. He finally got her out of my ears and I was once again able to enjoy my time at the best birthday party ever.
Towards the end of our 2 hours, more and more of my friends started to make their way over to the benches on the side of the room for a break. We were all hot and sweaty. My hair was drenched in sweat. Layers of clothing had come off. Massive quantities of water were consumed. A good time was had by all!
With our time up, we were herded into the final room, where a pitcher of water waited for us along with my very own blow up throne.
Ok, so that's not me. That's cousin J. Somehow I managed to not get a picture of me in my throne on my own camera, but cousin J showed off the throne so perfectly, I just had to use this pic to show you my throne of awesomeness. I made everyone sit in it. Then we left. I was hoping to be able to hang out with my cousins for a little longer but it didn't work out.
We said our goodbyes outside. R insisted he didn't need a ride. S ran back inside to get the cd I forgot. And just like that, months of anticipation was over. I can say without a doubt that I will go back there someday. I wouldn't have been able to afford it without a generous gift from my grampy, so thank you very much grampy! (even though I know you're not reading this)
I will say though, I was pretty disappointed with not only the number of people that didn't come, but who some of those people were. I made sure to give enough notice for everyone to plan ahead so they could be able to come. Had I known that so many people weren't going to make it, I could have invited others. The people that I thought fer sure would come, that I thought I would at least be able to see for my birthday having an awesome time even if I rarely get to see them otherwise, ended up not coming. I'm not going to lie and say that it doesn't matter and it's not big deal, because it did hurt. Maybe I'm just being over sensitive. Now, I know that some people had very valid reasons and that's totally fine. I can't argue with a sick baby of course. But it was my birthday. I don't feel like I ask a lot of my friends, feel free to correct me if I'm wrong about that, and I know that the place was kind of out of the way but I thought it would be a great way for everyone to have a lot of fun and all they had to worry about was how to get there. Carpooling was of course one option.
I've been struggling really hard with my feelings about this because I don't want to be that person who thinks the world revolves around her and everyone should do as I say. It's not like that at all. I don't want to come off as ungrateful, because I really did have an amazing time and honestly, the number of people that did come was perfect for how much space there was in the bounce houses. Plus, my bestestses were all there with the obvious exception of my boo all the way down in Florida. L and K's brother even got to tag along (and he brought me a totally kick ass robot necklace as a present!). But I can't just sit back and pretend that it doesn't hurt when people that I love do things that make me think maybe we're not as close as I thought. Course, the older I get...the older we all get, things change. People change. Or, they don't and that's a problem too. It's not like it was just another birthday either. It was my 25th! I feel like that's one of the big ones to celebrate.
To be clear, this is not for pity or to get apologies. I don't want any of that. I'm also not trying to make anyone feel bad or guilty. I just wanted to put my feelings out there, because I think sometimes people don't really realize how things can affect others. I'm also not claiming to be perfect, because I know that I'm not. I just really felt like I needed to get that off my chest, and this is my blog so I can write whatever I want. So there.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Leave a comment. Ask a question. Request a favorite story.