This story is still considered on time through the fast, loose and spurious logic of Astrology! No, I don’t buy into it but being human, I’m applying it just to make a rationalization for finally posting this well after my actual birthday. The original plan was to bang it out while in Vegas. Obviously I failed and I don’t care, I was having a great time. Where does Astrology come into play? According to how it works, July 22 to August 22 is my birthday month so I’m not constrained by the traditional calendar we’re all enslaved to. Therefore, if I got this done before August 22, I’m relatively on schedule!
Lame, I know. I tried. However, this awesome horoscope I found in Vegas will be covered soon and you’ll see why I might be on a roll.
Diversions aside, I want to reminisce about the first great birthday I had in Austin and probably the best one I had since 1989; I covered that one last year, what a fantastic, blurry, mess of a day.
After I turned 21, my birthday had become a rather mediocre affair and was quickly evolving into a rather depressing event (Patton Oswalt may be right). When I couldn’t get the day off from work on a couple, it bordered on being disheartening. The celebrations between 1990 and 1994 weren’t completely awful, they just lacked a spark of inspiration to make them something I wanted to remember.
When I turned 25 in 1993, I knew something had to give. Firstly, I had to go to work which was more my fault for all the other vacation days I had taken earlier and some were coming (GenCon and the Silder wedding), plus I get out of the apartment in a couple days. It was definitely the beginning of when I started to reassess why was I wasting my time in Central IL.
Since my life didn’t magically turn around into something more satisfying and prosperous in 1994, I was then starting to think Austin was a mistake. Matters grew worse after then too.
The Summer of 1995 signified a complete turnaround with Austin across the board. In May I landed the temp gig with Apple’s sales support, this morphed into transferring to Tech Support-PowerBook by August. My brother’s wedding in Chicago was a blast. A little reunion with the Silders, Bryants, Tobins and my parents a few hours after the reception cinched the good times. Matters between Doc and me returned to awesome; we carried on the tradition of seeing movies almost every Friday evening plus we traveled in his car to see more of Austin. Doc’s organizational skills also had Towers booked up by mid June so he had more time to socialize. I hung out with Sonia occasionally as well but she was rather busy working and/or attending UT. There was even a lady I had my sights on named Kim. How did she feel? I had no clear idea. We were hanging out which was good enough then. I probably should’ve taken the jibber-jabber about some d-bag in Seattle as a clue to ditch her.
It all culminated nicely around my 27th birthday which was on a Saturday. For my final SSO day, the generous ladies in the department threw a little going away celebration that Friday. One of them also drove me to Highland Mall afterwards to meet Doc and Eiko. At the food court, Doc and Eiko gave me a clever card and book (French for Cats). We hauled across Austin to take in Waterworld at Northcross. Snicker all you want, we all had low expectations but the movie isn’t as terrible as the jokes make it. The movie is only guilty of being expensive to produce, otherwise, it is a decent Dystopian-Sci Fi film along the lines of Escape from New York and Omega Man. It didn’t stop us from ridiculing some parts over dinner at Taco Cabana later.
Saturday, I took my time getting ready, strolled leisurely from 38th and Guadalupe to MLK (about 19 blocks) to meet Sonia for lunch. She had her boyfriend’s car which meant we could go practically anywhere. We agreed on an Italian place along Barton Springs. Afterwards, Sonia took me back to my apartment where I relaxed, probably took phone calls from friends who lived elsewhere (Silders, Bryants, it’s hazy).
Evening rolled around and it rained somewhat. Kim came by later, drove us to Sixth Street for drinks mainly with her clique. I didn’t care because I was enamored of Kim, foolishly believing in the Harry Met Sally strategy which has crippled a generation. Nothing memorable happened anyway.
Sunday was the unwinding day. I probably caught up on all my e-mail via AOL through my PowerBook 140. Bored, I braved Austin’s inconsistent mass transit system to Highland 10 for the latest Sandra Bullock movie; the comically implausible “thriller” The Net.
The weekend wasn’t exactly an action-packed, booze-fueled celebration as 1989 nor as impressive as living it up in Las Vegas (2003 and 2010) yet it remains a favorite due to all the time I spent with the friends I made in Austin. It also marked how optimistic things were looking. This was the way I wanted things to be on almost every level. An end to the malaise Central IL had placed on my birthday! Sadly, it ended up being the exception for some years to come. Hence, why I classify 1995 one of my favorites.