Birthday Bar Hop

So after a Thursday birthday, Friday night becomes the celebration. We begin with the long awaited pre-party at Topher's place. It starts out Sis, Hessica, Chaz and JG (otherwise known together as Jarles), Gavroche, VballKris, Topher, ChengJ and Marc. In addition to the drinks I have on the way up to the city, I polish off two more before we head down the street to the Bus Stop.

At the Bus Stop, we're joined by Z from HMB and Gavroche proceeds to get attacked by two girls, one of which tells me later she has a boyfriend. But apparently her boyfriend across the room says nothing about her throwing herself all over Gavroche (see picture)...We're there for two drinks, and upon leaving for 15 Romolo find ourselves face to face with a large contingent of rollerbladers in the middle of Union Street. We split up, throw ourselves in three cabs and take off for North Beach.

At Romolo we join JMill's party already in progress, complete with PandLVS, JoeMurph, PH, Mers, Whitta, Cat, McButter and Marga show up as well. Combined with the three cabs we bring, the bar is filled with an amalgamation of Crocker, SMHS, CSU and BHS kids. While here, a great many photos are taken, Amie complains repeatedly that she's ready to go dance and I get violently chucked from group to group being wished well. Amazingly, I manage to avoid excessive shot consumption. At around 12, JMill's party heads down the street to some club that involves people getting naked, the VS crew leaves for other parts and my group, now up around four or five cabs leaves for Fiddler's Green. It's at this point that I probably lost my glove.

We get to Fiddler's and it's the exact scene I was hoping for...good crowd, but not overcrowded, plenty of space to dance. At this point I've run into a Santa Claus, taken a picture with a Christmas tree, realized I lost one of my gloves and gotten repeated offers to enjoy a birthday gift courtesy of Jarles. Amie has introduced me to a girl, who I am still talking to on the curb outside the bar, without having any idea who she really is, where she came from or how I know her. I probably spend about 20 minutes, much to the chagrin of everyone around me, searching all over the bar for my glove. I'm really upset about that one.

By the time I'm on the curb getting in a cab with Hessica and Sis to go home, I'm having conversations that I remember nothing of now, and disappear so quickly I'm wondering if I was even there. All in all, the evening went exactly how I was hoping...a slow buildup to a heavy drunk, a wide variety of friends and family from past and present, a good mix of styles in the bars, dancing and no throwing up. That's what I call a perfect birthday celebration. For good measure, I top it off with a San Jose Sharks game on Saturday night.

I want to extend many thanks to everyone that showed up and helped me ring in my 26th. It's always great to see a lot of people I haven't seen in a while, and continue celebrating with all the people I see regularly. The evening really was my idea of a perfect celebration, and it really means a lot to me that all of you came out, so again, I thank you! Hopefully we'll see y'all at 27.