Rockin’ the Free World

Little Sam Whitfield, last seen on this blog at Anderson Fest toddling around the pontoon boat, has turned one year old. To mark the occasion, his parents threw a birthday party for him at their home in South Carolina, and the Professor and I got up early in the morning on Saturday to head down for it.

Sam was obviously given the manual for How to Behave at One’s First Birthday, because he very obediently chewed on all the birthday cards, tried to inhale a balloon, and moussed his hair with blue icing. The guests of this party were all over the age of 25, excepting one little 6 month old, so Sam’s parents had lots of beer, wine, and burgers to bribe us with in exchange for listening to an “Elmo Sings Sesame Street!” CD for two hours. I and many of my fellow partygoers started listening to this fabulous musical selection while drinking wine at 11am in the hot sun, so by 3pm none of us felt well and we were all yawning. Yes, we got thrashed by a one year old’s party. Sam’s mom Kara made sure to take plenty of video of all his “aunts” and “uncles” getting drunk at his soiree. Greeeeeat.

It was great fun, and we all headed over to our friend Jesse’s house after it was over. John and Kara (Sam’s parents) happily pawned the baby off to visiting relatives and joined us. After a quick meal of Mexican food and a couple of shots of Southern Comfort and lime (!!!) we headed out on the town, John as our DD, and proceeded to rock out. Jesse is single, so at his request the Professor and I were his “wing men” on the dance floor. I did my best attempt at dancing down and dirty, drank some more shots (!!!!!!!), and tried to seduce the DJ (who firmly told me to remove my beverage from his sound equipment), and then toddled off home on the Professor’s arm, chirping away about some nonsense and even drunk-dialing a few people. It was off the hook. I wish somebody had put me back on the hook, because the morning after was a little embarrassing, and also painful. We woke up at 10am, tender headed and sore, and then immediately headed for IHOP to wash down the hangover blues with some pancakes and lots and lots and lots of coffee. At breakfast Jesse started detailing some of my funnier comments; for example, at one point in the night, I pulled Jesse aside and patiently explained that girls were never going to want to come over to his house because the exhaust fan in his master bathroom sounds like a monster, and girls are scared of monsters. After he gave me that recap, I asked him not to tell me any more of the things I’d said.

One friend got a really bad migraine and had to go home early, ugh (she’s feeling better now), but all the rest of us had a pretty fantastic time celebrating. On our way home Sunday morning, we stopped at a mall to pick up about 15 presents that we owe various family and friends (it was tax-free weekend here in NC over the weekend! Awesome!), and then last night we did as little as possible. Now I have a busy week ahead of me, with my Israeli HR Director here in town all week. She’s coming to have dinner and stay the night with us tomorrow night, so I’m going to be busy tonight cleaning, cooking, preparing.

How was your weekend?