Right after Columbus Day is the next major holiday of the month…Helen’s birthday! You were thinking Halloween right? If I didn’t know her, I would’ve voted for Carrie Fisher’s birthday instead because I always want to remember the actress/author for wearing that Jabba-slave outfit so well when I was a teenager.
However, let’s get back to the birthday lady. We had a nice phone call over Saturday evening. Helen’s family celebrated some matters and there were additional plans on Sunday, namely a pedicure.
Twenty years ago was a different matter. Helen, her new husband (really, her now official husband), Julie and I got together in Milwaukee to celebrate the ladies’ birthdays, they’re the same day. Julie was living on the cooler east side so we got to crash at her apartment. After rendezvousing at Julie’s joint, we set out for dinner. Julie had to make a quick stop before we could get on with the evening. The ‘quick stop’ turned out to be a surprise party. I remember Helen being a tad pissed because she didn’t know any of the people, I think they were mostly friends Julie grew up with and/or made while working at her current career (I want to say social worker, I may be wrong). Paul seemed like, feh, let’s give it 10 minutes while we drink their beer. I thought, well, I’m kind of siding with Helen but we’re Julie’s guests, it would be wise to just go with the flow. If the parties blows, we can find a polite way to duck out eventually. Plus I felt somewhat insecure. These attendees were the hipper east-siders of Milwaukee which usually meant the UW-M crowd, not the uptight Marquette/MSOE bunch. Believe me, what was ‘hip’ in Milwaukee would be fairly lame/conservative in the larger cities. But weed was probably in the cards thanks to it being the early Nineties and Gen-X liking crappy bands such as House of Pain and Cypress Hill.
Thankfully it went more smoothly. Julie’s hosts were very nice people. To me it was a relief to be amongst a crowd that didn’t mind thinking or engaging in more polite conversation. Living downstate in Central IL was depressing. The highlight, catching up to Paul at the food table and us breaking into the This is Spinal Tap sandwich tray bit. There was a cool guy with a jester hat that reversed itself into a beret. He was also generous enough to tell me where I could get one, at Merry-Go-Round (checking Google if they still exist…no, they bit the dust in 1996 and they gobbled up Chess King, hmm).
Enough about me, me, me.
Helen had a pleasant evening. The remainder of the weekend went to the four of us as we ate, drank and reminisced. Rather funny to look back on times which were only three-to-five years earlier then.
Wish Helen a nice birthday by whatever means you want to use. May 2013 be as memorable and as cool as 1993 was. I recall the soundtrack of 20 years ago isn’t embarrassing.
Co-worker and friend Aaron has an older daughter who is just the coolest. She is a sweet, thoughtful person who loves superheroes and ninjas! So when I spotted this shirt at Target, I had to just buy it. If DC Comics can’t make it in my size, then I will have to enjoy the design vicariously through her. The face is cropped out to protect her privacy but trust me, she is smiling because she digs it.
