Sleep with the Fishes

I had a really wonderful birthday and I'd like to thank everyone that made that possible.

It began Thursday night kickin' it with my boys at Invisible Material rehearsal. We rocked through some new songs and some old ones. Dylan filmed and Moses danced. it was a great time and I look forward to seeing some of the finished product. Robin, being a classy gent gave me a HUGE bottle of Jack Daniels. After rehearsal I played the role of the good boy and went home and went to bed, so as to rest up for the weekend.

Prior to going out Chris, Elaine and Carrie came over to our house. Chris gave me a wonderful Marc Jacobs shirt. I die. I'm very thankful of the shirt. You will like it when you see it on me.

Friday night was the real celebration station. Shenanigans. We began the evening with cocktails at The Big Foot Lodge. The guest of honor, me, was in fine form. While here I received a gift from Devin and Dylan. They were ever so kind in giving me gift cards to Lowe's and Barnes and Noble. Very generous of them, they will be loved for a very long time. Prior to that I was given a wonderful book by Rebbecca and Loren, "I can't fight this feeling anymore". Very nice in deed.

Next up we went headed to The Roost. A rather packed pop corn smelling dump. I could see the potential for charm but it wasn't really delivering.

We ended the evening out at the Griffin, which is my favorite of my near neighborhood bars.

After bar call many folks came over and helped us to break in the new pad, some going so far as to crash on our floor.

Saturday was a lazy day spent recovering. In the evening Angela and I pulled our selves off the floor and drove down to San Diego, where a birthday surprise was waiting. I was very excited.

We got into San Diego late, went directly to her grandmothers, raided her fridge and went to sleep. I had at this point never met anyone to whom Angela is related. And I still would not until the morning.

Sunday morning I woke up very refreshed in the guest bedroom of Angela's Grandmother's house. Angela greeted me as I rubbed the sleep from my eyes. I was lead towards the kitchen, the closer I got the more amazing the cooking smells became. I met her grandmother, who is so very sweet. She made us an unbelievable breakfast of biscuits and home-made gravy with sausage and scrambled eggs. I have not eaten so well in a long time. I have really missed Grandma Strecker's cooking, this is the closest I could imagine. She was simply so kind and took feeding me very seriously. It made me feel very special and I was glad that Angela let me in to her world. It's nice knowing that there is a little family just 2 hours south of us, where food is plentiful and everything is comfortable.

Finally, bursting with excitement we left the house and headed out in search of my surprise. As we traveled down the freeway I noticed signs for Seaworld. My tender heart beat fast in my chest as I've always wanted to go there. I was over joyed when Angela took the exit headed in that direction.

Upon entering the park Angela grabbed a map and proceeded to dominate it. I found this to be a bit strange for her but really only in an unconscious way. On the way there she had explained that my birthday surprise was a 2 parter. The first part being sea world. As we wondered through Sea world it should have been apparent that Angela was looking for something, but I was missing all the signs.

Finally we came to the Dolphin area and stood by their pool. She pointed to the pool and said "this is part two of your surprise". I was confused. I said what? Perhaps thinking she was going to throw me in and it was a joke. She said "we get to get in there with them". To which I could only reply, "how?".

She had made the reservations earlier in the week. Knowing I have a crush on sea life, especially dolphins. We were ushered into a locker room and given wet suits and before I knew it we were in the pool petting a Dolphin named Ripley. Ripley was amazingly sweet. If you hugged her she would rest her head on your shoulder. Love Bug.

We got to feed her and she splashed us. We hugged and petted her and posed for photographs. All told we got to spend over an hour in the water with this lovely creature. A really wonderful once in a lifetime opportunity.

We wondered around sea world for much of the afternoon. Seeing many nice sights and shows. Afterwards we were famished. Angela's Grandma had been so kind as to give us cash to go eat at Olive Garden. We had amazing food and filled our tummies to the brim.

We stopped at a few little stores for some shopping after this. I found a wonderful tuxedo jacket for 2.75. Happy find.

We went back to Angela's Grandma's house after this and I took a glorious nap. When I woke up we had strawberry short cake and I got to spend time looking at old photographs of Angela and getting to know her Grandma better.

All to soon it as time to head home. I left with a happy heart having done something truly amazing. I also left feeling very happy that Angela has such a wonderful grandma cause she is now my grandma a little bit too. :)

After my long nap the drive home was a breeze. I told Angela to put her seat back and let me drive. She slept the entire way home while I listened to talk radio.

By the time we got home I was still very into my radio program, Coast to Coast AM, So much so that I decided to tune in on the stereo in the living room. Angela has a record player radio unit that is made to look like an old tube stereo, complete with a soft glowing light on the front. I turned out all the lights and sat at the end of the couch Angela was sleeping on. I sat there thinking about times past. Times when Angela's grandmother and my own grandmother were young. Before television this was it. Dark walls and only the pictures in your mind.

My Grandmother Strecker told a story of sitting in her chair listening to a scary radio program, the whole time nervously scratching at the arm of the chair with a paper clip. Apparently in the light of day the damage done to the chair was enough to get her in big trouble.

I'm thirty now and grandma Strecker is gone. Life comes and goes, very fast at that. But the time you are here on earth is yours forever. Everything a person lives is their's and it happens in that time forever, over and over for all eternity. I don't know much about time but I know this to be true, your actions are forever and they ripple out from the point of action and they never end. Do as much as you can with your life because through what you do you live forever.

Kiss a dolphin, it's so worth while.