I had a “surprise” party.

This should be a quick one.

Fun story:

I don’t go out much. I have an aversion to crowds that dates back a couple of decades, but got worse toward the end of 2016. Those are other stories for a different. However, I don’t like going out, not really.

Over the last couple of months, Tiffany has been working on getting me away of being a recluse and back into the world. Brandi Carlisle was a highlight, as was Roger Waters. Last night was her crown jewel.

I’m now 50 years old. I’ve been here a couple of days now, and it’s not as bad as I thought it was going to be, yet I still have paranoia issues about aging that betray the tough, steely eyed exterior persona I’ve cultivated over the years.

So, over the last couple of weeks I’ve been fighting against Tiffany’s kind hearted efforts to make my life better – more enjoyable, more entertaining, just … more. Tiffany had been secretly planning something big and loud and awesome.

I’ve never had a surprise party planned for me. In fact, I’ve spent a lot of the last stack of years working against having any recognition of my birthday at all. It’s a day, the voices in my head tell me, where a person should be celebrating the people in their life more than celebrating themselves. I don’t like to celebrate me, no matter how it seems.

I’m just me, see? I exist to perform and entertain. If I happen to educate along the way, a total bonus. I am a dancing service monkey. I perform tasks to make life easier for other people … except doing dishes. Dishes too often fall out of my service sector.

I digress.

Thanks to Facebook being a silly stack of coding errors that still manage to function as a platform, I found out about the surprise party. In my head, the party would have a small handful of pals and family in a quiet setting sedately making fun and sharing embarrassing stories.

I cannot express my surprise at last night’s turn out.

So many people I just adore showed up.

It was all I could do not to have an emotional outburst.

I did my best to spend some time with everyone who showed up, and I’m sure I didn’t spend enough with everyone. Working a crowd is a skill I’ve let atrophy over the years.

I had a great night last night. I want to thank everyone who showed up, and the folks that have reached out who couldn’t make it; I want to thank everyone that tried to drown me with booze and to the person who bought me dinner … I just want to say say thank you for reminding me that my life is full of people that I love, that I am thankful for, and that, cheesy and cliche as it is to say, I am “blessed” with.

Thanks, of course, to Tiffany for making my life a more entertaining place to inhabit.

Honestly, my only regret for the evening was not taking advantage of the crowd to push folks to join Patreon. I mean, I do have a network to run, and ironically, I forgot to properly network. If you didn’t make it (or if you did), and want to feel like you participated, use the QR Code below. :p

See? I can’t even send a thank you card without pitching the World’s Greatest Podcast Network. Sometimes I’m just the worst.