My birthday adventure- part one - the boring part.

I turned 24 this year on February 24th. At first it was a quiet affair, as all of my birthdays so far had been.

The night before, mom and my sister Becca gave me my gifts, and what wonderful gifts! Two pads of watercolor paper, and a foot spa! So cool! I was happy, and very grateful, but it turns out this was just a distraction.

So I woke up on the morning of the 24th, thinking my birthday was done with, and of course immediately tore my cornea. I have recurrent erosions, and every now and then I wake up to blinding pain in my right eye, just for opening my eye too quick.

In pain, I stumbled out of bed, fumbling for my eye drops to 'oil can' my eye the rest of the way open. After several minutes of meditation the pain becomes bearable, so I continue about the rest of my morning. I eat a little something, then get dressed for work. It's a Sunday, which means a matinee. The show of the week was The Music Man by The Gallery Players. I had designed their lights, and was now running their sound for the shows. I was enjoying the show, so I didn't mind I had to work on my birthday.

When I arrive at work, my director has the entire cast and crew sing to me. Let me tell you, it's a very awesome moment when 30+ actors who can seriously sing sings happy birthday just for you, but I was glad I was all the way upstairs in the booth, so I didn't have to stand awkwardly while they sang. Instead, I sat awkwardly, smiled, waved, and thanked them, before continuing with mic check.

For the music man, I was fortunate enough to have my best friend Heather in the booth with me, running lights. We have so much fun during the shows, joking, laughing, hanging out, and never ever missing a cue. We spent most of that matinee talking about Pokemon, and various crazy aunts and uncles, so it was a lot of fun.

After the show, mom shows up with cupcakes for me and the cast, woo! So cool!
One of the producers said they hoped I really enjoyed the rest of my birthday, and gave me a mysterious foreshadowing smile. I thought very little of it at the time, and thanked them and told them of my plans of a low-key evening playing video games or watching a movie.

Little did I know what awaited me at home...

To be continued...

GEEK, OUT!