Well, dear readers, let me get it out of the way right now – BEST BIRTHDAY EVER. Yes, you heard it here, dear readers, all the planets were apparently aligned in perfect position to give me the most perfectly perfect birthday in all my years. In fact, I don’t know how it could have been more perfect. So, let’s start at the very beginning which is, after all, a very good place to start. I got up fairly early, about eight-thirty. I had a slew of wonderful birthday e-mails, plus we were already close to 200 postings. I then went out and got my dry cleaning and then went to Gelson’s to pick up the Parisienne cake for the signing. I then came home, shaved and showered, went over the sections of the book I was going to read from, and then finally toddled off to the Dale of Glen for the signing. We had a lovelier than lovely turnout, around twenty people, and we sold more books than I’ve ever sold at these things, which included not only Murder At Hollywood High, but several Kritzer books as well. I had fun doing the reading, and we had a lively discussion afterwards. Then we served cake, I signed books, and that was that. Then I came home and found we were already over 500 postings. It became apparent that we were within spitting distance of entering the top ten of posting days, and, in fact, we made it before I left. At that point it was already one of the best birthdays I’d ever had, but it was only the beginning.
At about six-twenty, I toddled off to Genghis Cohen for the big birthday bash. Miss Patti and her mother had everything set up beautifully – two huge round tables, both with lazy-Susans in the middle. They’d already done all the ordering in advance, and there were slips of paper in front of everyone’s place setting with the menu items. They’d also done amazing gift bags for everyone that included stuff that I wrote about in the various and sundried Kritzer books – Ginger Beer, a U-No Bar, Fizzies, Necco Wafers and the like. It was very clever. People began arriving, eighteen in all (we had a couple of no-shows for various reasons). It was a wonderful group of friends, and the conversations were hilariously hilarious and what a time we all had, especially me. Our Genghis Cohen pickles and slaw was already on the table, so we all partook of that. Then there were egg roles and incredible meat on a skewer things. I really wasn’t expecting presents, but presents there were, although I didn’t open any until later when I got back home. Edisaurus did make me look through my haineshisway.com dear readers present – the Japanese jellied rice candies and Swedish fish and whatnot, plus a mystery DVD that she said she had to watch with me. That intrigued me. It was fun keeping conversations going between the two huge tables. The food was, as always, brilliant. We had orange chicken (extra crispy), garlic chicken, cold sesame noodles, crackerjack shrimp, green beans – and plenty of ’em. Everyone was bowled over by the food and we all ate way too much of it. After the meal, two huge chocolate cakes were brought out, one with six candles – everyone sang Happy Birthday, and then I made a big ol’ wish and blew out all six candles. Several people professed that it was the best cake they’d ever eaten. It was bought by Miss Patti’s mother, and it was indeed great. Lots of photographs were taken, so I know people will be posting them at some point. It was already the best birthday ever, but just in case there was any doubt, edisaurus and Greg came over to watch the mystery DVD with me.
To say it was the icing on the cake would be a severe understatement. Apparently, this DVD was the brainchild of dear reader Jeanne, and it was edited with great care by edisaurus. It was an incredibly moving and beautiful and funny eleven minutes and the perfect capper to the evening. It was wonderful putting voices with the avatars I’m so used to seeing, and the sentiments were moving and sweet and ultimately overwhelming. After that, edisaurus and Greg said adieu and I settled down trying to catch up to twenty-five pages of postings. By the end of the evening, we’d reached the second highest posting day ever. So, thanks to the denizens who help make this one of the best websites on the Internet, thanks especially to everyone who helped in the making of that very special DVD, which I’ll treasure forever, and thanks especially to Miss Patti and her mother Simone for taking on this huge project and bringing it off without a single hitch. A spectacularly spectacular evening, and one I shall never forget.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below, because I’m ready to fall over from being both overwhelmed and tired.
Have I mentioned that it was the BEST BIRTHDAY EVER? I can’t say it enough.
Today, I must attend a mid-day matinee opening of the Nutcracker ballet by the Media City Ballet, which will take place at the Alex Theater – there’s some sort of reception that follows, and I’ll be attending that, too. And then I shall come home and crash and sit on my couch like so much fish for the rest of the day and evening.
Tomorrow night, I’ll be attending a show that is all Gene Pitney songs, which I’m looking forward to – it’s entitled Town Without Pity. It’s gotten very good reviews, and I think they’d like to record it.
The rest of the week is filled with various and sundried meetings and meals. I must also attend to some Christmas presents and also send out the eVites to the Christmas Eve Do, which is coming up sooner than soon.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, attend an opening, attend a reception, and then sit on my couch like so much fish to watch DVDs. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s free-for-all day, the day in which you dear readers get to make with the topics and we all get to post about them. So, let’s have loads of lovely topics and loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I reiterate one more time – BEST BIRTHDAY EVER!