December birthdays are hard. First, especially those of us with mid-to-late December birthdays, our plans to go out are usually subsumed by ugly sweater parties and other holiday shenanigans. Second, even if we magically find an open day, there's a good chance half the people we would like at our event will be out of town to visit family. And third, it's cold and gets dark early, so just spending time outside at a park or something equivalent is not a legitimate option. With two notable exceptions--a surprise birthday party and a blizzard that kept all my friends in town a few extra days--therefore, my adult birthdays have typically been relatively quiet. This year was no different.
But I've accepted quiet birthdays and enjoy events with 4-5 good friends. This year my birthday fell on a Friday, putting even more pressure on me to actually do something. Post-work (sadly couldn't get out of that, although my coworkers did bring in some cupcakes and Oreos, which was nice!), as much as I wanted to go to sleep and be lazy, I went into downtown DC and watched the carolers at the Willard Hotel. There was a nice group of 5 of us there, listening to some music, drinking hot apple cider, eating Christmas cookies, and catching up. The party then continued to a Thai restaurant, where I received a free meal, and then on to the Tombs, a wonderful Georgetown bar. Finals were over so students weren't around, so it was a chill Friday night there, but it brought back enough good memories. And I was with friends, which was sweet.
Clearly I partied too hard, though, and slept in until about 12:30 today (Saturday). It was slow-going to start the day, but I eventually pulled through and then went to a friend's place for an EPIC trivia tournament of champions. This friend--we realized we've known for each other for just a shade under 5 years(!)--has been hosting trivia nights at his house every couple of weeks for the past few years, and I've managed to attend a few along the way. The first time I knew no one else, but every time I've learned more names, recognized more faces, and made some new friends. My teams typically did OK, but not splendidly. Today, my team struggled to keep up the entire night, going into the final bonus round in last place. The final round's category was 2014, putting 12 events into order (one per month) and...MY TEAM GOT IT. The only one of the five teams to successfully do it. We worked well together to get it, and I'm proud that I was able to contribute. Here were the 12 events:
But I've accepted quiet birthdays and enjoy events with 4-5 good friends. This year my birthday fell on a Friday, putting even more pressure on me to actually do something. Post-work (sadly couldn't get out of that, although my coworkers did bring in some cupcakes and Oreos, which was nice!), as much as I wanted to go to sleep and be lazy, I went into downtown DC and watched the carolers at the Willard Hotel. There was a nice group of 5 of us there, listening to some music, drinking hot apple cider, eating Christmas cookies, and catching up. The party then continued to a Thai restaurant, where I received a free meal, and then on to the Tombs, a wonderful Georgetown bar. Finals were over so students weren't around, so it was a chill Friday night there, but it brought back enough good memories. And I was with friends, which was sweet.
Clearly I partied too hard, though, and slept in until about 12:30 today (Saturday). It was slow-going to start the day, but I eventually pulled through and then went to a friend's place for an EPIC trivia tournament of champions. This friend--we realized we've known for each other for just a shade under 5 years(!)--has been hosting trivia nights at his house every couple of weeks for the past few years, and I've managed to attend a few along the way. The first time I knew no one else, but every time I've learned more names, recognized more faces, and made some new friends. My teams typically did OK, but not splendidly. Today, my team struggled to keep up the entire night, going into the final bonus round in last place. The final round's category was 2014, putting 12 events into order (one per month) and...MY TEAM GOT IT. The only one of the five teams to successfully do it. We worked well together to get it, and I'm proud that I was able to contribute. Here were the 12 events:
- January: 33 couples get married at the Grammies
- February: US beats Russia in Olympic ice hockey
- March: Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 goes missing
- April: Boko Haram kidnaps girls
- May: 9/11 Memorial opened
- June: World leaders gathered to commemorate D-Day
- July: Germany wins World Cup
- August: Robin Williams passed away
- September: First US Ebola case
- October: Kansas City Royals go to first World Series since 1985
- November: Trailer released for Star Wars Episode VII
- December: Last Colbert Report aired
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