Happy 10,957th to me!
Can you believe it's been two whole months (and two countries ago) since I last wrote on here? Shame on me, I know. But I have good news! The adorable person typing this that you all surely hold dear to your hearts actually made it to 30!
Yep, this last weekend I celebrated my 30th birthday (or 10,957th day, if you didn't figure out the title) in the absolutely decadent style that I've quickly become accustomed to. The gala lasted from the late Thursday afternoon until the early hours of Tuesday morning. It all started in Chico, CA with my wonderful friends Donna, Casey, and Jelena - the first two taking Jelena and I out for dinner at the best restaurant in town. This weekend was also Jelena's 22nd birthday. Happy birthday, darling!
Friday I drove to SF to meet up with the lovely NZ Kristen (hereby known forever more - or at least until sufficient notice - as either "Kiwi Cuervo" or simply "Shooter") before she flew back to the land of the Kiwi in the late afternoon. The parking garage at the airport will never be the same without you, Cuervo!
Then it was off to change into the leopard pants and convene with 20 of my closest friends at the Porn Palace downtown. Now, Mom, before you faint - I've been to the PP several times and it's always been MUCH tamer than the title suggests. It's basically a big, fun place that a guy who makes, um, movies for a living owns and throws an open bar party for his friends once a week. And my friend Shameless just happens to know everyone in town and, in traditional superstar form, got us all in once again. It was pretty laid back and we mostly saw everyone's pics of Burning Man, which was a lot of fun.
Pause for a brief aside...
If you'd like to check out my pics from my first Burning Man event ever, do so here!
and now back to our irregularly unscheduled broadcast...
Saturday I got my first (and certainly not my last) "Superhero Purple" (although that's not the official name of the color, just the one I christened it) manicure and pedicure combo. Although at least my toe nails have been purple for almost a year now (yes, I know some of you have Morrison's "People Are Strange" in your head right now... and if you didn't, well, you do now) I've never actually painted them myself. Usually it's Jelena doing a fantastic job on it whenever I can get the lil' swiss miss to lay her hands on me but on Saturday I went for the full nail spa treatment. Niiiiiiiice!
Afterwards Shameless and I gorged ourselves on sushi...in my surprise hotel room! Soon after about 20 of my closest friends showed up to help me ring in 30 in true style. We put on our favorite party clothes, jumped into the biggest limo i've ever seen, and rolled out to take on San Fran-freakin'-cisco's dance scene. The gala lasted all night and I'm pretty sure I wasn't the only one surprised to see the sun come up earlier than really expected.
And then Sunday came the picnic on top of top of Mt. Tamalpais with champaign and lots and lots of fur. We had the city to our left and a beautiful sunset coming down over the ocean on our right. If there was a better place to be at that moment I couldn't think of one.
Monday night closed out the celebration with a relaxing post-Burn hot tub party in Oakland (called, cleverly, "Soakland", of course) with Shameless and High Dive, the latter a new awesome friend from New Zealand. More champaign, of course, and more bubbles all around.
A big kiss to Shameless Heather for making this weekend happen. I told her a week or two ago that I wanted all of my friends to come out dancing and to be surprised. I knew if anyone could show us the way to a wonderful weekend it would be her. And big love to Casey for the limo, the picnic and who really knows what else (he's so modest he'd never say). And big, big love to everyone who came out this weekend to show me the most amazing birthday celebration I have truly ever had. I love my life, I love my friends!
Go see the rest of the pics here! http://picasaweb.google.com/nomadjim/HappyBirthdayToME
