Totally 80's .... Totally Hungover

(My lovely wife in the lovely blue jumpsuit)

“Nothing good ever happens after 1AM”. So goes the conventional wisdom when stories come out about athletes getting in fights at bars, celebrities doing faceplants on the pavement in front of the paparazzi, and 40ish folks reliving their 80’s glory and getting creative with drink combinations after the DJ has packed up and the alcohol is in full effect.

My wife’s 40th birthday party this past Saturday night was a huge success. Everyone really embraced the 80s theme, which made for some great outfits and a lively night of dancing to some great 80’s music. There were Madonnas a-plenty, everyone’s favorite groundskeeper Carl Spangler, plenty of preppies, and yours-truly went AWOL from Top Gun training for a bit to bring Maverick to the party.

My wife was pretty specific with what she wanted at the party, so it definitely wasn’t a surprise, so I figured I had to come up with some way to surprise her. I’m a man of few words, and not prone to drawing attention to myself in social situations, so I figured singing to my wife in front of all the guests would catch her offguard. Mission accomplished. Fortunately/unfortunately it was all caught on video …

I had resolved that I would keep my drinking at a respectably low level to maintain a slight buzz for the evening, which I succeeded at until around 1:30AM when the DJ had to leave, and we broke out the iPods and started playing our own music. The drinks for the evening consisted of a keg of Pale Ale from a local brewery (which was WAY too good), pitchers of a mixed-drink called a Sweet Tart which was chosen because it had Midori in it so it was a nice neon green which matched the neon-heavy 80’s theme, and jello shots made with 4 different neon-ish colors/flavors of jello. Lots of folks brought bottles of wine for gifts, and one neighbor, as part of a running joke, brought a bottle of Jagermeister. We also tried to come up with various 80’s stuff to have around the house, including neon jelly bracelets, Rubik’s cubes, and Pop Rocks.

Around 2AM, with the party still going strong, suddenly the Jagermeister appears. The last of the jello shots get gathered up as well, and of course the Pop Rocks come front and center. At this point various combinations of these three are tried by many, unfortunately including myself, with varying results. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but I can assure you that a jello shot with Pop Rocks sprinkled on top, with a healthy dose of Jager to activate the Rocks does not make for a very tasty shooter. That’s not to say that several rounds weren’t consumed, I just wouldn’t recommend it.

We finally got to bed sometime between 3AM and 4AM, and Sunday was a foggy haze of cleaning up and taking naps. The only worthwhile activity I accomplished Sunday was my stretching therapy, but I checked my workout log and realized that since I got cleared to start running again I had alternated running days and lifting days for 18 straight days, so it was probably good to give my body a rest. At least that’s what I used to convince myself, and pay no attention to the liver abuse that prompted the rest day.

All in all a great party, and my wife had a wonderful time, which made it all worthwhile. Her actual birthday is today, and for a present I got her a new setting for her wedding ring, which she got a few days early and grins every time she looks at it, which is really fun to watch.

One final photo – we setup a camera in the living room for folks to take pictures of themselves in their 80’s attire. I needed to get the camera and flash adjusted so it was just a point-and-click exercise, so I needed a test subject, and my camera-seeking-missile of a daughter was only too happy to fill the role. Here’s one of many shots. She’s only 8, so I see lots of ulcers in this dad’s future.

A couple of good giveaways to link to today, since after the party and the ring I'm a big fan of anything free:

• Rad Runner is hosting a Peaceful Mountain Giveaway, with some great natural products to cure what ails you, which is something I know far too much about
• Tim Wilson at 26.2 Quest is hosting the Sony's New Wearable Walkman MP3 Player - Giveaway, and I'm a sucker for anything that keeps the beats coming while the feet are going

I Feel the Need ... The Need for Speed

Strangely enough the title above has nothing to do with running.  I mentioned in my last post that I'm working feverishly on the finishing touches for a birthday bash for my wife.  Per her request it's an 80's themed party, complete with 80's music, 80's decorations (lots of John Hughes movie posters - man those movies were all so good), and about 80 gallons of booze.  We rented a dance floor that we setup in our family room (which our dog thinks is the greatest thing ever), and we supplied the DJ with a craptastic song list of our 80s favorites.

My attire for the evening will be full-on 'Top Gun' Maverick gear - flight suit, aviator glasses, loads o' hair gel, and crazy-ass scientology rants ..... maybe I'll skip that last one.  To complete the Top Gun homage, and to step well outside of my comfort zone, I'll be making a toast after a couple hours of dancing (and more importantly drinking) and have arranged with the DJ to re-enact the bar scene from the movie with my vocal stylings on 'You've Lost that Loving Feeling'.  Hopefully the crowd will help me with the chorus, and hopefully my wife will rescue me before I have to hit the second verse.  Should be interesting .... hopefully no crash and burn.  I expect plenty of photographic and video evidence, so I'll try and share some in my next posting.

Thanks to those who posted suggestions on some new running tunes.  To demonstrate my extreme confidence in all input provided by the wise runners who blog, I purchased every suggestion I could find without even listening first, and will give them a spin during my morning run tomorrow.  Couldn't find the David Cook suggestion on iTunes, and the U2 remixes weren't on iTunes either, and I had never heard of them although after a Wikipedia search on them I'm very intrigued.  Will have to see how I can track that disc down.