Okay so if you somehow missed the one million Facebook announcements, I turned 30 last fall, on 10.10.10. I did a countdown on Facebook. I invited lots of friends to a trifecta of events spanning the weekend. I went to like a bajillion concerts over the course of my birthday "week". It was awesome. I was determined to make the best of turning 30 and not be like "I don't wanna celebrate". I like having one day a year be about me. So I was turning 30, so why not have three days be about me? I like threes, anyway.
First thing I did, thanks to winning tickets on Chicago radio station WXRT, is go see Guster again. With my friend Matt, since I had an extra ticket. I waited in line, got in the front, the stage was tiny and close. Perfect for taking close up photos of Ryan Miller trying to maul the microphone.
This was an invite-only album release party, they were signing stuff afterwards, and it was one of their first shows with their new guitarist Luke Reynolds. I thought this was a cool shot of their instruments sitting and waiting for them to take the stage.
This picture is from their last song- an awesome picture from XRTs website, awesome because you can see my bald head right below the acoustic guitar on the left- and that's how close I was. So that started off my birthday on Thursday night.
Friday night we had an event at Dave and Buster's. I'd never been. We got a discount on stuff and a free "room" rental for a couple hours where we could play pool and shuffleboard and eat food and drink drinks and be merry. Then we went and played games. The bill for like 15 of us or whatever was hundreds of dollars. I spent the ensuing week trying to reconcile the amounts with everyone (through no fault of anyone, just underestimating when giving me cash and then leaving before the bill came). So that involved a scanner and lots of highlighting and math.
Saturday morning we headed to South Bend to go paintballing. Those photos are out of order and I don't feel like moving them. Saturday night we hung out at my parents house eating more food, drinking more drinks, watching Notre Dame football, and hanging out.
Sunday was family birthday time. Always includes Jenny since she was born five days before me (but 3 years after...wait, before AND after?) This birthday also included some delicious Italian meats and cheeses.
I always mandate that we have a Dairy Queen ice cream cake on my birthday. Chris is a master cake-cutter too.
(Also out of order, a picture when I got home to my apartment a few days after my birthday, discovered a mysterious package from I had no idea who, and then realized that my friend Jenny's mom had taken my request seriously for some puppy chow- Chex mix covered in chocolate and peanut butter melted and mixed together...and then rolled in powder sugar. AMAZING TREAT that I ate for WEEKS.)
Sunday night we headed back to Chicago. (I think I was driving with Josh and Andrea but I sorta forget now). Then we finished the trifecta and went out to Goose Island for some drinks. My friend David Gloss gets the grand award for being the only person to make it to all events, all three days. I should have given him a prize. Maybe I still will. Like a shirt or something.
Oh but the birthday celebrations continued. My friend Erin, at my Twitter/Facebook public plea, came to Chicago to see Miike Snow with me. They're a band. Not a person. From Sweden. Not sure how to describe their music but I saw them last year at South By Southwest and they were cool. Erin likes them. Most people have never even heard of them.
The FOLLOW UP cool thing is that Erin mentioned she was going to see Jars of Clay in South Bend. For cheap. And that they had some meet-n-greet beforehand. Signing stuff. SO, in the spirit of my birthday week of a plethora of concerts, I decided to go back to SB again with her after we went to see Miike Snow, to go to the concert. So I was in SB for like 12 hours or something nuts. Whatever, worth it.
Jars of Clay. Up close. Unfortunately for fans of their recent albums, they were doing this new thing where they played like their whole first album. Would have been kinda cool way back when, cause I liked that album, but their recent songs are GREAT. Whatever, it was good anyway.
One of the two guitarists had a custom Jars of Clay Taylor guitar, with jars on the neck, and he'd apparently worn a nice hole in it too, which I managed to get a good picture of.
Oh. Pictures out of order. Par for the course. Here's Miike Snow, the Swedish band, when they came out in smoke, wearing masks. It wasn't as freaky weird as it sounds...or looks.
Out of order. Don't care. Post-paintballing pictures. My dad, who hasn't paintballed in like 20 years but was man enough for it anyway, and Jenny...who we convinced to come with us at the last minute (thanks in party to Colleen coming and making her feel like not the only girl...which then helped us convince my cousin Eric's wife Jill to come too!)
Maybe you can't see THAT well, but the paintball carnage left a LOT of welts on my back. WHO KEPT SHOOTING ME IN THE BACK!?! No mercy on your birthday. There's one on the back of each of my arms, one on the middle of my back, and one on my lower back. Awesome.
The whole paintball crew. Not coincidentally, the ones who play first-person-shooter video games were the best at it- Nathan, Eric, and Pat. You jerks.
Here's the giant hole I ripped in the crotch of a pair of jeans I'd had since high school. Shame. I was diving behind a...thing. I tried to duct tape it. It kinda helped.
And that is all. I celebrated my birthday for almost a week in total. Wait until I turn 40.
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