Birthday Blog!: Casey Gorman's Birthday!

Hello blog enthusiasts,

This blog is dedicated to the 21st birthday of a fellow study buddy, Casey Gorman! Last week, Casey turned 21, which of course required a week long celebration. On wednesday night, we hung around our flat for a bit, and then a bunch of people went to our well loved oceana dance club to celebrate. That was all well and good, as we ushered in the day of Casey's birth. The real story is the next day.

After professor geier's class on Thursday, we set off in our usual large group of people in search of a greek/mexican restaurant for Casey's birthday dinner. It has become a theme to get moderately lost on the way to these birthday dinners, and we arrived a bit late after walking in a circle. Emotions were already running high because we were all famished. The restaurant was small and cute, with flashing lights and really bad spanish/ middle eastern music and american/ british music videos playing on tvs. The presumed owner of the joint noticed us beginning to settle in to the tables clearly set up for our large group, and she quickly (and in a somewhat alarmed manner), ushered us into the next room to wait for "just two seconds". Ten minutes later, we were seated in a veritable party zone; there was confetti, banners, balloons, all for Casey! The servers and owner seemed to think we were throwing Casey a legitimate birthday party there; they took a long time serving us because they presumed we would want more drinks, or something. The reality was, we were all starving and a bit grumpy and in serious need of food. When our food finally came, it was quite delicious if a bit overpriced. I did enjoy sitting and talking with Casey E and Laura, but the minutes dragged on into hours. We had desert, and as soon as Casey G left the table to go to the bathroom, the lively owner zipped over to us to inform us that they had a surprise for Casey and that when they brought it out, we MUST sing and dance. We all smiled and agreed, unaware of what was in store and assuming we only had to sing happy birthday and clap when she blew out the candles.

The moment of truth arrived, and the staff all brought out Casey a muffin with a sparkler and a candle in it. We sang happy birthday and the candle was blown out, and we were all satisfied with this standard birthday tradition. But then the music turned up. The maracas came out. and the tambourines. The owner prodded us all to our feet and we were forced to dance! Casey was adorned with a fake plastic grass hula skirt and coconut bra with flowers, and given her very own maraca to shake. We formed a circle, did a bit of a congo line, and then the owner took turns shoving each of us into the middle of the circle to humiliate ourselves for the birthday girl by doing a little jig. Most of us just ran in, and looked for an opening in the circle through which to escape. It was a bit terrifying; so terrifying that a pair of women actually bolted from the restaurant in fear they would be made to dance. We began to worry that it would never end, and as people dashed across the circle in an attempt to escape the owner, they would whisper "when is this going to END??"

Finally, it did. And we paid the check and skedadled out of there as fast as we could. At that point, it was 10: 20 or something like that; we had spent 4 hours in there. But it was worth it, because no doubt that will be a 21st birthday celebration that none of us will soon forget.

The picture above on the left perfectly sums up the experience.